Heavy Snow Expected in the South-Western Alps | Welove2ski
Snow Report

Heavy Snow Expected in the South-Western Alps

Well, fancy that. After all the uncertainty of the recent forecasts it has started snowing in the Alps, after all.

Well, fancy that. After all the uncertainty of the recent forecasts it has started snowing in the Alps, after all.

But I don’t want to stoke anyone’s hopes too high, because the white stuff is rather localised.

Last night, for example, the northern Tirol saw 5-10cm of snow. The Skiwelt was one of the main beneficiaries, and scene there is much more wintery now. Almost all the snow here is man-made: but it does have a softer, more natural top layer now.

Here’s how it’s looking above Soll, where the snow is 25-50cm deep, depending on altitude.

Heavy Snow Expected in the South-Western Alps | Welove2ski
Photo: skiwelt.at

Meanwhile, in the south-western Alps, it looks like a proper storm is brewing. Check out the Welove2ski’s snow forecast for today.

Heavy Snow Expected in the South-Western Alps | Welove2ski
Welove2ski’s snow forecast for December 19.

And this is the snow forecast for tomorrow.

Heavy Snow Expected in the South-Western Alps | Welove2ski
Tuesday’s snow map.

If the forecast holds good, the resorts of Piemonte and the Aosta Valley in Italy will get the lion’s share of the storm – although some snow has already fallen the other side of the international border.

I’m the Three Valleys at the moment, as a guest of Val Thorens and the tour operator Crystal. This morning, we woke to light snow and strong winds, blasting over the mountains from the south. The wind has scoured the exposed slopes; but in more sheltered spots the pistes have a coating of soft, grippy snow.

Here’s how it was looking earlier on in the midst of a particularly squally blast.

Heavy Snow Expected in the South-Western Alps | Welove2ski
Photo: welove2ski.com

Once the wind dies down and the new snow is groomed into the pistes, there will be some lovely skiing here, though I don’t think we’ll get enough to fill in the off-piste routes. (Currently the snow, on-piste, is 60-135cm deep).

Conditions are very similar today in Val d’Isere, as you can see below. We can expect a little more snow here than in Val Tho, as it’s closer to the Italian border. Val d’Isere currently has 33-137cm of snow, on-piste.

Heavy Snow Expected in the South-Western Alps | Welove2ski
Photo: valdisere.com

That said, the real dumps will be in Italy – in resorts such as Pila, pictured below, where there’s already 20-200cm of settled snow.

Heavy Snow Expected in the South-Western Alps | Welove2ski
Photo: pila.it

The resorts of the Milky Way, such as Sauze d’Oulx, Bardonecchia and Montgenevre will also do well.

Serre Chevalier should see a little snow today too. Here’s how it was looking at lunchtime. The snow here is currently 30-182cm deep.

Heavy Snow Expected in the South-Western Alps | Welove2ski
Photo: serre-chevalier.com

It is of course great news that some resorts are getting snow before Christmas, but for the most part they’re the ones who already had decent early-season cover. It’s a great shame the snow is not more widespread.

That’s not to say the rest of the Alps are snowless. Regular followers of our Snow Reports will know that many other areas (for example, Ischgl in Austria and the Dolomiti Superski area in Italy) have made up for Mother Nature’s shortfall by working their snow cannons hard. But still, natural snow is almost always softer and grippier than the man-made stuff, and everyone would a bit of help from the skies.

What’s more, there are a few low-lying areas in the north-west that are really struggling – notably the Portes du Soleil in France.

Here’s how it was looking at lunchtime in Ischgl – where two of our editors are heading over Christmas.

Heavy Snow Expected in the South-Western Alps | Welove2ski
Photo: ischgl.com

Once the skies clear in the south-west, high pressure looks set to reassert its dominance over the region. There may be snow in Austria on Christmas day, but this is far from certain, and the general trend is for mild and sunny weather.

Thank heavens for snow cannons and high-altitude resorts!
 

 

Meanwhile in North America…

If you’re dreaming of deep powder snow, you’d better look away now. Because in the American Rockies they’ve had plenty.

This was the Beaver Creek snow stake on Saturday morning. It measures the snow that’s fallen every 24 hours – in inches not centimetres.

Heavy Snow Expected in the South-Western Alps | Welove2ski
Photo: Beaver Creek/Facebook

This was Vail on Saturday.

Heavy Snow Expected in the South-Western Alps | Welove2ski
Photo: David Neff Photo/Facebook

And this was Jackson Hole in Wyoming on Friday. Jackson Hole has had 207 inches/525cm of snow so far this season, and reports its deepest-ever base of settled snow in Rendezvous Bowl.

Heavy Snow Expected in the South-Western Alps | Welove2ski
Photo: Chris Figenshau/Jackson Hole/Facebook

The action has snow switched north of the border. In Canada, Whistler is expecting half a metre of snow by Thursday.

About the author

Sean Newsom

As well as founding Welove2ski in June 2007, Sean has written about skiing and snowboarding in the British press for 28 years. For the last 20 of them, he’s also been the ski travel editor at The Sunday Times.

2 Comments

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  • I have a vacation scheduled for St. Anton end of January. Haven’t been there in 30 years. I see there hasn’t been any snow there. I know it’s a stupid question but am getting worried, what are the chances for snow by then?

  • I’ve just returned from St Anton (on 21st Dec). The resort was very quiet which meant that the limited number of open pistes were not very busy. Cold weather has meant the snow blowers have been working full time, and the pistes that are open are in quite good condition, if a little icy in places. There is no off-piste snow to speak of at all.
    Not sure how busy it will be at the end of January – but if the weather remains cold enough then the pistes will be fine because of the snow blowers – so i’d not be too worried just yet!!

    Feel sorry for me though – due to go to Les Gets on 16th Jan – might just take my mountain bike!

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