J2Ski's Where to Ski in February 2025
J2Ski's Where to Ski in February 2025
Published : 01-Feb-2025 08:11
February starts with good snow conditions across most of Europe, much of North America, and (probably) all of Japan!
Aletsch Arena, Switzerland; similar conditions across the Alps at the moment
Where to Ski in February 2025
February is usually the peak month of the northern hemisphere's ski season when all the snowfall of the previous three months enables resorts to open all of their slopes and before temperatures start to rise for spring.
2025 is, on the whole, living up to these norms. Most of the skiing world, at least in the northern hemisphere, is almost fully open. Some ski areas - western North America, most of Japan and much of the Alps - have had a fairly good winter and have had everything open for weeks or in some cases months.
Others, like North America's East Coast, have been on a bit of a catch-up after a poor season start but as we start February, are just about there.
That leaves a few regions still facing challenges. The Pyrenees are doing OK but none of the big areas have quite made it past 70% open so far and it's a similar story for Scandinavia. Scotland, unfortunately, has its all too common roller coaster winter underway with nowhere yet able to fully open for the season. The hope there is for a big February snowfall to transform things.
Europe
Austria
The ski racing world will be focussed on Austria this February as Saalbach Hinterglemm hosts the biggest competitions outside the Winter Olympics, the bi-annual World Championships.
It has been a pretty average season for Austrian ski areas so far but the end of January brought some good snowfalls (after rain) and February sees most areas fully open, or nearly so. There have been few big snowfalls but cold temperatures overnight have allowed snowmakers to produce the goods and ensure almost every run is open.
France
The usual weather mix in France over the past few months has caused problems with rain on the snow at times and high avalanche danger but has also delivered the deepest snow cover in Europe to some of the country's best-known ski areas, now up around the 3-metre mark.
The overall picture - with the February half-term holidays, coming up, the busiest weeks of the season on French ski slopes – is pretty good with most of the country's ski areas reporting their slopes at least 90% open. Huge snowfalls in late January certainly helped, with several centres going past the 3m/10 feet base mark, the only ones in Europe to do so so far this winter as a result.
Chamonix recently posted a remarkable 1.2 metres (4 feet) of snowfall in 72 hours.
Italy
It has been a fairly dry winter so far for Italy and most of the country's ski areas have been offering skiing on snow lying less than 50cm thick, a lot of that snow machine-made.
That said, most are close to fully open, and long-used to operating with little natural snowfall. Some centres in the Dolomites have said that their customers prefer cold, sunny days to prolonged snowstorms.
The biggest snowfall of the season, so far, was in the final weeks of last month; areas including Livigno, seeing as much snowfall in three days as they had all winter.
The snow depths are much greater in the north and west of the country, lying over 2 metres deep at La Thuile on the French border. Val Gardena in the Dolomites reports all 180km of its slopes open for February despite just a 50cm base.
Switzerland
Swiss centres also start February with most posting all of their runs open and fairly decent snow depths.
The final week of January saw up to 90cm (3 feet) of fresh snowfall, the most this season so far.
Saas Fee actually has one of the deepest snowpacks in Europe, approaching 3 metres, although at the other extreme St Moritz reports only about 30cm lying, but still has two-thirds of its terrain open.
So far there has been much heavier snowfall in the west of the country than the east, but ski areas across Switzerland are in the best shape they've been all winter, in terms of terrain open, which is close to everything.
Scandinavia
It's not really been the best of winters in Scandinavia so far.
Although there have been periods of famously cold temperatures and some decent dumps on Norway's coast we've also had a warm autumn bringing below-average snowfalls and some highly unusual spells of warm, wet weather in January.
Bases are gradually building and open terrain increasing through these ups and downs, although some of the region's biggest areas start February with still only 40-60% of their slopes open. The final week of January also saw some of the heaviest snowfall of the season in the region.
The end of this month should see the season start at northern destinations including Bjorkliden and Riksgransen.
Scotland
Scotland has had its familiar pattern of very low temperatures followed by very warm temperatures over the past three months. In the cold weather, bases have gradually built up and Glenshee, Cairngorm and Glencoe have managed to open a few natural runs for a few days each before the next warm spell.
As we start February we're in another positive period with centres opening more natural terrain again, although the forecast for the start of February is for rising temperatures.
Pyrenees
The Pyrenees are not having the best of seasons so far, but not the worst either.
There has been relatively little natural snowfall all winter, so much of the open terrain is machine-made snow and base depths are not huge. On the upside, it's been cold overnight for much of January and so snowmaking machines have been able to operate to the max.
Some ski centres still only have 30-40% of their slopes open but most are up at 60-70% and a few on the French side have managed to hit 909% open. Hopefully, these numbers will keep improving through February.
Eastern Europe
A fairly good picture across Eastern Europe as we start February.
The Balkans are arguably in the best shape with some of the deepest snowpacks reported for several years and pretty much every run open at Bansko and Borovets in Bulgaria.
Further north the numbers aren't quite so spectacular in Czechia and the Slovak Republic in terms of snow depth but again most runs are open at the region's best-known resorts like Spindleruv Mlyn and Jasna.
North America
Canada
It has been a better-than-average season for Western Canada with ski areas there posting the world's deepest snow depths, excluding Japan, and Revelstoke in British Columbia the first to pass 6 metres (20+ feet) of seasonal snowfall to date in the country.
January was a drier month than November and December but remained very cold, rarely getting above freezing in fact, and most centres in Alberta and BC are fully open.
A much more challenging winter in the East, although January was cold and snowy which has greatly improved things now. The largest area, Tremblant, announced it was finally fully open in the last week of January.
USA
The US has had a moderate season to date, with few huge snowstorms to report and some problems with warm temperatures at times, particularly on the Northeast side of the country.
February is set to start with a snowstorm expected to hit the country's West Coast, delivering up to 100 inch (3 metres) of snowfall in the first few days of the month.
Conditions are now the best they've been all season with the gradual build-up of snow over the last three months meaning more and more US resorts are either fully open (including Park City Mountain) or at 90%+.
Asia
Japan has been enjoying one of its best seasons of the past decade with the abundant light powder it is famous for arriving regularly, building up the deepest bases in the world this season to date – some areas are now close to the 5 metres mark lying on their upper slopes.
February should be an epic snow month in Japan.
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