Snow Report, July 2

What’s this? Good conditions across all of the Southern Hemisphere’s main ski regions? It’s a few years since the Welove2ski Snow Report has been able to say that. Down there, it’s usually a case of one man’s feast being another man’s famine: but at the moment almost everyone – in South America, Australia and New Zealand – seems to be happy.

The biggest smiles right now are in the Andes. There, a wintry end to last week left some ski resorts with over half a metre of fresh snow on their slopes. Portillo in Chile reported 59cm of new snow on Friday, and on Saturday Las Lenas in Argentina had 80cm of settled snow at the bottom of the lifts, 200cm mid-mountain and 230cm at the top. Given it’s less than two weeks since the resort opened for the start of the season, those are pretty good numbers.

There was about 40cm of fresh snow last week in Valle Nevado in Chile, too. The resort posted a rather nice little video about it on Saturday.

Nevando en Valle Nevado from VALLE NEVADO on Vimeo.

Over in south-eastern Australia conditions are pretty good too. In Perisher, New South Wales, they had 10cm of fresh snow this morning, bringing the week’s total to 28cm. There’s been a lot of snow-making at night, too – 148 cannons have been working at times – and the settled base on the trails is over half a metre deep. With 44 out of 47 lifts open, the resort is almost full open. Meanwhile, at Mount Buller in Victoria, today’s snow report talks of 34-70cm of fresh snow across its slopes.

The outlook for the coming week is dry and sunny, but at least it will be cold at night, allowing the cannons to freshen up the cover on the groomed trails.

Here’s today’s video report from Perisher.

In New Zealand, stormy weather last week was followed by a sunny, settled weekend – and chilly nights in the South Island’s ski areas. There hasn’t been much fresh snow in the last seven days, and the occasionally vicious winds have scoured exposed slopes off-piste. But at least the snow cannons have been running, and the cover on the groomed trails is good – 50cm at the bottom and 80cm at the top of the mountain according to the snow report from Coronet Peak. All eyes are now on a weather front due in the at the weekend – which will bring snow to much of the South Island. followed by cold southerly winds. Next Monday could be a powder day.

Back in Europe, the summer ski season on the Alpine glaciers continues. It’s a mild and soggy day today, with rain right to the top of the mountains, and more to come in the Welove2ski Alpine weather forecast. But that hasn’t deterred the small army of ski racers and freestylers which camps in Les Deux Alpes every July, as you’ll see from the webcam picture, below. It’s +2C at the top of glacier today.

Read our guide to summer skiing resorts in both the northern and southern hemispheres.

	France: Glacier skiing is now possible above Val d’Isere, Les Deux Alpes and Tignes. On the glacier at Les Deux Alpes, the cover is up to 205cm deep – a significant drop on last weeks’s figure, which reflects the mild and soggy start to summer.
	Switzerland: Two pistes are usually open on the glacier above Zermatt at the moment – but not today, thanks the wet weather. Saas-Fee’s glacier opens on July 14.
	Austria: There’s good snow cover on Austria’s glaciers at the moment, with the Hintertux glacier claiming 295cm. However, after another mild and soggy week we suspect that number will be revised down significantly soon. Today the temperature is +5C on the highest slopes and 22km of piste are open.
	Italy: Seven pistes are open today on the glacier above Val Senales – and cover is reported to be 170cm deep.
	Andorra: Andorra’s ski areas are closed.
	Western USA: All the mainstream resorts in the US are now closed for skiing. However, there is skiing (and a terrain park) on offer at Timberline Lodge on Mount Hood in Oregon.
	Western Canada: You can ski on the glacier above Whistler at the moment. It’s at the top of Blackcomb mountain and is open until July 29.