Snow Report, August 4

Last week was a torrid one in the ski fields of New Zealand. High winds shut the lifts for five days on Mount Hutt, near Christchurch. Meanwhile, at Coronet Peak, just north of Queenstown, heavy rain turned the lower slopes “ugly”, according to the resort’s own refreshingly honest assessment.

But it all came good in the end. Amidst the rain and howling winds a fair amount of snow fell at the top of the lift systems. Treble Cone near Wanaka has reported 30cm in the last week. The Remarkables near Queenstown reckons on 45cm. What’s more, temperatures have now dropped, the wind has died off, and skies have been clear.

These were the Summit Slopes at Treble Cone this morning.

Pictured below was Mount Hutt…

And this was how Coronet Peak looked this morning.

More snow is in the forecast for the NZ ski fields over the coming five days.

Meanwhile, in south-eastern Australia, there’s been fresh snow, too…

Pictured above was the Snowy-Mountain resort of Perisher, yesterday. Perisher’s snow report records 27cm of new snow in the last week, and up to 148cm of settled cover, off-piste.

 
The Andes also saw some fresh snow last week. Valle Nevado in Chile reported 10cm of fresh snow on Thursday, and currently has 40-120cm of settled cover, on piste. Meanwhile, across the border in Argentina, Las Lenas reported up to half a metre of snow on the upper slopes, thanks to a storm that blew in on the same day.

There was snow in the Alps last week, too

It’s not been a great summer so far in the Alps – at least not for sun-worshippers. Showery, stormy weather has been the watchword. But that has had at least one happy side-effect: regular top-ups of snow on the glaciers.

Pictured, above, was the scene above Cervinia, on the southern side of the Matterhorn (aka Monte Cervino) last Thursday. Which was good news for the summer skiing programme up there.

That’s not to say the sky has been a sheet of unbroken cloud, however. On Thursday, it was clear enough for Tignes in France to lay on its annual eye-popping display of helicopter high-diving.

And in Zell am See they were letting off the fireworks on Saturday night as part of the Zeller Seefest…

Last week, giant slalom world champion Tessa Worley was training on the glacier above Les Deux Alpes. She had decent weather now and again, as well.

Today and tomorrow, afternoon thunderstorms will be a feature of the weather, again – but then it looks as though conditions will calm down for a couple of days with high temperatures and lots of sunshine expected. Then in the French Alps at least, local forecaster Meteo Chamonix is predicting the return of thunderstorms.

	France: the summer ski season is now over in Tignes. The glacier reopens in October 4 for the autumn season. Meanwhile, above Les Deux Alpes, summer skiing continues until August 30.
	Switzerland: there was plenty of fresh snow on the glacier above Zermatt as a result of last week’s storms. Some estimates put the figure as high as 70cm. Now, the Zermatt snow report records 190cm of settled snow on the pistes – 14 of which are open for skiing. The glacier above Saas-Fee is also open for summer skiing too: four pistes are available for skiing today, and the settled cover is 280cm deep.
	Austria: you can currently ski on the Hintertux glacier east of Innsbruck, as well as the Molltaler glaicer near Flattach. On the Hintertux, 18km of pistes are open, and the snow is up to 280cm deep.
	Italy: you can currently access glacier skiing on the Swiss-Italian border from Cervinia, when conditions allow.
	Andorra: Andorra’s ski resorts are now closed.
	Western USA: The Rocky Mountain ski season finally finished in June. But let’s not forget that in in late September they’ll be cranking up the snow cannons again in Loveland and Arapahoe Basin if conditions are right. If you want to ski now, head to Timberline Lodge on Mount Hood in Oregon.
	Western Canada: the short summer skiing season on the the Horstman above Whistler has now finished.