The last ten days have seen big smiles across the Andes: and no wonder, given the storm that blew in at the beginning of the month. More than two metres of snow fell in some resorts.
Pictured below was ace Canadian skier skier Ian Mcintosh in Portillo, Chile at the weekend – photographed by Sage Cattabriga-Alosa.
Meanwhile, further south, in Corralco, British ski school Snoworks got its latest South American tour off to a flying start, with 30cm of perfect powder…
…and gob-smacking views.
The weather’s been mostly sunny since the storm: but there’s more snow in the forecast for Friday and Saturday – which will be heavy south of Santiago. That’s been the pattern for most of the season. Despite the recent, headline-grabbing dump, it’s the more southerly resorts that are having the more consistent season.
Spring is starting to nibble at the edges of the New Zealand season
As regular followers of the Snow Report will know, winter got off to a flying start on the South Island of New Zealand, and has produced one of the coldest, most consistent seasons in years. However, over the last couple of weeks, the weather’s been getting flukier, with mild interludes. There was one on Friday, and all the talk was of spring snow. Thankfully, it cooled off on Friday night and there was a dusting of snow at the weekend, followed by more substantial falls today.
Pictured above were The Remarkables earlier today. “It’s puking snow!” was the cry. Pix like this remind me of the French phrase “ca tombe des pizzas!” (it’s snowing pizzas) – which nicely sums up the conditions.
The Remarkables also saw a recent “record-breaking” attempt to make the flattest-ever carved turn on a snowboard…
The Snowy Mountains of Australia have had a mild week
After a slow start to winter, Australia had a good mid-season with a couple of significant cold snaps, and heavy snow. Lately, it’s been mostly sunny, which provided decent conditions for the Transfer Snowboard Magazine banked slalom. Check out the tunnel turn.
Monday night saw the weather turn colder, and there was 8cm of fresh snow in Thredbo. The snow cannons got a chance to run again too. Here’s how it looked this morning in the windblown stashes.
At last! The Alps are cooling down – a bit
Holy moly – what’s this? Fresh snow on an Alpine glacier?
Pictured above was glacier above Les Deux Alpes on Sunday morning, after 10cm of desperately-needed fresh snow. There was snow above Cervinia and Zermatt too – and our snow forecast for the Alps suggests there’ll be a smidgin more at the highest altitudes over the next couple of days. Thank heavens for that! Ever since late June it’s been steaming hot in the Alps (with occasional stormy interludes), and for the most part the daytime freezing point has been stuck well above 4000m. This week it’ll be closer to 3000m, so the relentless cycle of melting will be arrested, for a while, at least.
Here’s the latest video report from the Warren Smith Ski Academy above Cervinia…
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France: The Grand Motte glacier above Tignes has now closed, but Les Deux Alpes is open for summer skiing until August 29. Conditions have improved slightly, thanks to 10cm of snow at the weekend, although they’d love to have more. |
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Switzerland: currently Zermatt claims 130cm of snow at 2900m. Here, 17 lifts are currently open, serving 14 pistes. You can also ski on the glacier above Saas-Fee. |
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Austria: two glaciers are currently open in Austria for skiing – Hintertux, and the Molltal. On the Hintertux glacier, the snow is up to 75cm deep on the pistes, and 18km of pistes are open. It’s significantly cooler now – mid-morning today, the temperature was only just above freezing at the top of the pistes. |
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Italy: there’s currently lift access from Cervinia to the high-altitude pistes between Italy and Switzerland. |
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Andorra: Andorra’s ski resorts are closed. |
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Western USA: summer skiing is on offer at Timberline Lodge on Mount Hood in Oregon. |
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Western Canada: Whistler’s short glacier season on Blackcomb mountain finished on July 26. |
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