Where to Ski And Snowboard -

Snow overview: 05 March

5th March 2010, by Wendy King

Some sunshine in Switzerland on Friday

Summary:

Spring was in the air for much of Europe this week, as we moved into March. Not that it has been very sunny, mind you; fog and low cloud has been a consistent problem lately. France has been particularly stormy at times too. While there haven’t been vast quantities of fresh snow, what has fallen is regular and maintaining excellent conditions high up. France and the western corner of Italy have fared best, but most other parts can claim a fresh covering. Thankfully, where rain has softened conditions low down things should firm up with the arrival of a colder airflow.

In north America, impressive recent snowfalls are continuing to provide good conditions in the US. While snow depths are lower in some central parts than might be expected for time of year, the slopes are in much better shape than earlier in the season. Deep powder can be found in the west, where there has been abundant snowfall in recent weeks. Canadian resorts would welcome another huge dump – it has been relatively quiet in snowfall terms recently.

Austria

Mild conditions have persisted across Austria this week, but with snow showers too. This means that soft, wet snow has been a feature to much higher altitudes than of late. Typically Mayrhofen (5/90cm) has thin cover at valley level, though with few runs to resort this poses little problem. Snow showers refreshed the pistes there with 10cm on Thursday. The Arlberg and the glacier resorts of the Tirol continue to offer the best conditions. St Anton (60/310cm) has received regular snow/rain showers this week, reporting 15cm on the Valluga. Temperatures have now fallen to below zero on Friday, and fresh snow is showing up in various resorts – in the Salzburg region: Hochkonig, for example. Saalbach (50/90cm) reports 5-15cm fresh powder. Snow showers there are forecast to continue over the weekend.

France

French resorts have had a pretty stormy week all round, with very little change since we last reported. Despite the mild conditions, settled snow depths remain impressive across most French resorts – albeit rather windblown in places. More southerly regions received fresh snowfall on Wednesday, accompanied by strong winds. Vars/Risoul (170/251cm) received 20cm, and has pretty good cover at the moment. Isola 2000 also welcomed new snow above 1400m. Resorts in the Tarentaise have received snowfall each day, though not in vast quantities. La Clusaz (20/270cm) continues to surprise this season, with settled snow depths now almost 3m on the upper slopes. Rain has been a feature at lower levels, but for a resort of its overall height it has been a good season so far.

Italy

Further modest snowfalls have refreshed pistes in the west, interspersed with some weak sunshine and mild temperatures. The slopes are pretty well stocked in the Aosta valley at the moment, with plenty of good skiing on offer. It is much colder in the Dolomites on Friday, so snowmaking can resume to top up recent snowfalls. Some areas have not received any fresh snow for almost two weeks now – Cortina (35/150cm) for example – so pistes have firmed up generally. Settled snow depths in Livigno (116/219cm) are excellent, though no new snow has fallen for a week. It is likely to remain dry, but cold (minus 17 degrees on Friday morning) here for the next few days too.

Switzerland

Swiss resorts have not escaped the gloomy cloud either, but again very little snow has fallen in central and northern regions – meaning the slopes have firmed up on the upper areas, slushier lower down where it has been warmer. Light snow did fall in Wengen (30/115cm) mid week and in the Engadin resorts (St Moritz). Off-piste is tracked out or crud in Davos (53/149cm), where they received only a dusting of snow on Wednesday. Most places have gained only 5-10cm from the recent showers, and lower resorts such as Villars (30/140cm) have thinner cover low down as a result of the rain. Even here, though, there is fresh windblown snow on the upper slopes. Southern resorts are always notably drier (Saas Fee and Zermatt), but glacier cover seems a little low this winter. We’re still receiving reports of good skiing and riding though.

Beyond the Alps

Scotland continues to enjoy a fabulous season, with plentiful snow. Cairngorm (190cm) reports greater snow depths than many Alpine resorts, with snow showers continuing to affect the resort on Friday. The outlook is for a brighter, less windy weekend. All five centres are in great shape, and often reap the best snowfalls of the season in March and April.

Scandinavian resorts have received lots of fresh snow in the past week, around 30cm on average. Hemsedal (145cm) is offering some of the best snow cover, but Are in Sweden also reports packed powder and a further 10cm fresh snow.

German resorts, like Austria, haven’t escaped the effects of mild air. Cover in Garmisch Partenkirchen remains good, though, and they have the added benefit of an excellent glacier. Heavy snow was reported again mid-week, so this should help the lower slushy snow. Bulgarian resorts are suffering similarly mild weather too, with soft slushy pistes beginning to form. There has been little significant snowfall recently, although February’s dumps mean both Bansko and Borovets are reassuringly well covered.

The Pyrenees: Parts of the Pyrenees were badly hit by recent storms; there was little fresh snow but high winds caused quite a bit of damage to infrastructure. That aside, settled snow depths are generally fine.

North America

In Canada, mild weather has produced quite variable conditions. February has been relatively dry; the exception being Whistler’s run of changeable weather. Snow showers have dribble-fed dustings to Banff’s slopes, which are still offering good skiing and riding with everything open. Spring skiing is typical elsewhere in the west, slopes firm first thing then softening later on. Similar conditions are reported at Mount Tremblant in the east, where the slopes are riding firm and fast under sunny skies.

In the US, west coast resorts continue to accumulate masses of new snow. Deep powder is the order of the day in Mammoth, which has now exceeded 4m in settled snow on the upper mountain. Similarly, Squaw Valley (419cm) reported another half metre dump this week. Plenty of powder and soft fluffy pistes can be found in Colorado and Utah, where at last they are receiving reasonable snowfalls. More snow has arrived for Alta (245cm) this week, and there were light 5-8cm dustings mid-week in all the main Utah resorts.

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