Snow Report, November 11

When I posted the last Snow Report, on Friday, I couldn’t help wondering if the snow forecast was over-optimistic. It was predicting more than half a metre of snow in parts of the Alps this weekend.

Turns out it was bang-on target. This was Tignes, in France, on Sunday – one of the hubs of early-season ski scene in the Alps.

“Blizzards today in Tignes,” ran the report from Phil Smith’s ski school, Snoworks. “Over half a metre of snow has fallen over the last 24 hours.” Maybe we’ll see the opening of the Double M piste soon, all the way from the glacier back down to Val Claret.

In the meantime, here’s a survey of webcam and Facebook shots from across the Alps, as the storm clears. It’s cold (-12C on the Hintertux glacier in the Tirol for example) – and the snow is soft and powdery. Oh, to be skiing one of the glaciers today!

The big question is – what happens next? Actually, the outlook is an exciting one. It seemed for a while as if an area of high pressure was going to park itself over western Europe this week, and warm things up. But increasingly it looks as though its influence will be short-lived, and it will be spending most of its time moored in the Atlantic instead. Temperatures will rise briefly, and then drop back again. This week in the French Alps, for example, Meteo Chamonix is predicting a cold north-easterly wind called La Bise. The freezing point will rise to about 2800m on Wednesday, before dropping back to 1600m on Thursday.

What’s more, one of the mid-range weather models, (the GEM) is predicting that next week cold, snowy low-pressure systems from the north are going to start running down the eastern edge of the Atlantic-based high – straight into Europe. If this is correct (and of course there’s no guarantee that it is just yet), we’ll be seeing lots more snow in mid-November – and officially the Alpine ski season will be off to a flying start.

By Thursday, the outlook for next week will be clearer…

By the way, November 9 saw the opening of the Lac des Vaux piste in Verbier for weekend skiing. Here’s the opening-day video, in French.

The next significant opening takes place on Thursday when Obergurgl in Austria opens for the season.

Across the Atlantic more resorts have opened for the season

Friday saw the opening of both Breckenridge in Colorado, and Lake Louise in Banff National Park, Canada.

Here’s the first-day video from Breck. It’s going to be a big season there – thanks to the planned opening of Peak 6 at the northern end of the ski area. As you’ll see, there’s already some good-looking snow on the groomed trails – but they’ll need a dump or two yet before they can get stuck into the resort’s off-piste terrain.

And here’s how it was looking up in Lake Louise on opening day. It’s been overcast there – and pretty wintry. Yesterday’s high was just -8C.

In most parts of the North American west it’s been a promising end to autumn, with frequent bouts of snowy weather. The immediate outlook is fairly dry: but that’s likely to change midweek.

	France: The Grande Motte glacier above Tignes is open for skiing – and should stay that way right through to the opening of the entire ski area (scheduled for November 30). Before that, however, we should see the Double M piste opening all the way from the glacier back down into Val Claret. Meanwhile, above Les Deux Alpes the glacier has now closed again after its winter preview: the resort reopens full-time from November 30.
	Switzerland: You can ski on the glaciers above Zermatt and Saas Fee. Saas-Fee’s snow report talks of up to 210cm of cover on its pistes. Engelberg’s glacier is closed until November 15. Meanwhile, Verbier will be opening every weekend until the start of the mainstream season.
	Austria: see our main report. The Austrian glaciers are in fantastic condition at the moment. You can currently ski on the Hintertux, Stubai, Rettenbach, Kaunertal, Pitztal, Molltal and Kitzsteinhorn glaciers. On the Hintertux glacier, the snow report records cover, on-piste, up to 155cm deep. Next up for a winter opening is Obergurgl, on November 14.
	Italy: the glacier above the Val Senales/Schalstal in the South Tyrol is open for skiing, and the lifts above Cervinia are also running full time, offering access to the glacier above Zermatt.
	Andorra: Andorra’s ski resorts are currently closed.
	Western USA: See our main report. In Colorado, Copper Mountain, Keystone, Arapahoe Basin, Loveland and Breckenridge are among several resorts now open. In California, the first lifts are running on Mammoth Mountain, too.
	Western Canada:  Norquay and Lake Louise in Banff National Park are now open for skiing. However, Sunshine Village has postponed its opening day.