Winter keeps a firm grip on New Zealand

After a very bumpy start, New Zealand’s ski season has hit a purple patch. The second half of July saw plenty of snowstorms in the Southern Alps, and now it’s turned cold and sunny. It’s been a nearly a week since the last fresh snow, but conditions are generally very good, and smiles are a mile wide across the ski fields.

Here’s how it was looking in Treble Cone, near Wanaka, earlier today.

And this was the scene at The Remarkables, during the Streets Minishred today.

According to the latest MetService report, it’s likely to stay sunny and cold until the middle of the week – after which there could be some more snowfall on the mountains – as well as a rise in temperature.

The Snowy Mountains of Australia have had a great couple of weeks, too. In three days from July 23 resorts such as Thredbo and Perisher clocked up 80+ cm of snow – and as we reported last week, had a powder party to remember. Last week was much drier, but still cold: and Thredbo was able to run its Top to Bottom races on Saturday in near-perfect conditions. There were a few champagne showers at the party afterwards, too…

The immediate outlook is less brilliant, but after rain tomorrow, temperatures will be dropping back and there should be some more snow.

Meanwhile, in the Andes, they’ve had some good conditions too, although there hasn’t been much new snow in the last week.

The video above was posted by Chris Davenport in Portillo on Friday – just before the start of his 13th annual superstars camp in the resort.

In the Alps, a Cold Front Approaches

Right now, in the Alps, it’s GORGEOUS.

This is the top of the Wiedersberghorn, above Alpbach in the Austrian Tirol…

Meanwhile, pictured below is the view today from the top of the Hohe Salve, not far away in the Skiwelt, where two of our editors are currently stationed. Apparently, you can see seventy 3000m peaks from here when the air is clear.

And here’s how it’s looking in Tignes today. You can no longer ski on the glacier (which will reopen in October), but there’s still plenty of biking/hiking/running/climbing to be done in the resort.

However, it is about to get cooler and wetter, thanks to cold front which is fast approaching the region. In France, the daytime freezing point will dip to 2800m on Wednesday – and in Austria it may get down to 2400m on Thursday. So we’ll see snow dusting the higher peaks before the week is done.

	France: the summer ski season has now finished on the Pisaillas glacier above Val d’Isere and in Tignes. But you can still ski at Les Deux Alpes, until August 27.
	Switzerland: there’s plenty of snow up on Zermatt’s glacier at the moment. Currently the resort reports up to 160cm of cover, on-piste. You can also ski on the glacier above Saas-Fee.
	Austria: summer skiing is currently on offer on the Hintertux and Molltaler glaciers. On the Hintertux, the snow is up to 120cm deep – and there should be a little bit more up there by the time the expected cold spell has passed through.
	Italy: Cervinia is currently open for summer skiing.
	Andorra: no skiing is currently on offer in Andorra.
	Western USA: summer ski camps are currently running at Timberline Lodge in Oregon.
	Western Canada: the Horstman glacier on Blackcomb Mountain in Whistler is now closed.