Snow Report, 25th March, 2010

INTRODUCTION
Say goodbye to spring weather in the Alps as loads of snow and colder weather is just around the corner.
It’s been a mild and sunny week again in Austria. The skiing is generally good though with the best advice being to stay high, as always. Obergurgl has some of the best skiing thanks to slopes up to 3000m.
It’s also been warm and sunny in France, where conditions are virtually identical to in Austria. Lower resorts have largely slushy snow at all levels but places like Tignes and Val d’Isere have better snow above 2500m.
Soft spring snow can be found all over Switzerland and Italy at the moment too. Saas Fee in Switzerland has great skiing on its upper slopes. However the snow has already begun falling at Cervinia in Italy. The resorts received 20cm of fresh on Thursday, giving a new lease of life to the whole ski area.
20cm of fresh snow at Breckenridge in Colorado means you can enjoy powder skiing. Lots of other resorts benefitted from the fresh snow as well, so get your fat skis out!
The greatest amount of fresh snow in Canada fell on the east coast this week, which makes a change. 23cm fell at Monte Sainte-Anne on Wednesday 24th March, which is excellent for the rest of their season.

AUSTRIA
The snow conditions in Austria have largely remained unchanged all week. The very warm spring weather means the snow is soft and slushy at all our featured resorts, especially at lower levels.
The Ski Club rep at Obergurgl (36/141cm) said that although the snow was spring-like on Wednesday, they had an excellent day’s skiing. All the runs are still well covered with snow and there aren’t any bare patches. The best of the snow can be found up high, as you would expect at this time of year, but the softer snow lower down can be great fun to ski.
Spring conditions dominate at Mayrhofen (0/85cm) too. There is no snow in the village or on the lower slopes but higher up there is still some good skiing available. The Ski Club rep there said many people are skiing in t-shirts as the temperature is 20°C down in the valley at times. Make sure you wear plenty of sun tan lotion though as it is easier to get burnt at altitude.

FRANCE
There were signs of a change in the weather in the French Alps on Thursday. Although it was still very mild at most of our featured resorts the skies were clouding over.
Light snow fell at Risoul (131/211cm) on the upper slopes on Thursday. It was not any significant amount of snow and it was falling as rain on the lower half of the mountain, but it was good news nonetheless. The snow was still fairly slushy on most of the mountain and soft at the top but the thin layer of new snow did improve the conditions on the higher areas a little.
Val d’Isere (96/165cm) hasn’t yet received any snow but it is heading their way. The snow in the Espace Killy is still fairly good due to its altitude, with slopes above 3500m. The lower slopes down into the town were slushy on Wednesday according to the Ski Club rep but all you have to do is head above about 2400m and the snow is better. Fresh snow is what they need and there is plenty of it forecast for the weekend.

SWITZERLAND
A few areas of Switzerland received fresh snow on Thursday 25th March, but the resort that received the most was Zermatt (2/131cm). Around 10-15cm fell on the upper slopes over the course of the day, but unfortunately it only rained in the town. More snow fell over on the Italian side than in Zermatt, but the snow that fell on the Swiss side was still enough to give a new lease of life to the upper slopes.
Arosa (100/150cm) has some good spring skiing available too. Although it didn’t snow on Thursday the pistes are in good condition due to an excellent job by the resorts groomers. The best of the snow is on the upper slopes, as always, but skiing is still possible down into the town of Arosa. Snow is forecast over the weekend so expect some good powder up high.
Only 25 lifts of 61 were running at Gstaad (0/190cm) on Thursday. Some of these lifts are up on the Glacier 3000 which is shared with the neighbouring resort Les Diablerets (30/190cm). The glacier was unfortunately completely closed on Thursday but might reopen for the weekend.

USA
It’s still pretty spring-like across the whole of America at the moment, with temperatures above freezing at most of our featured resorts.
Timberline (315cm) still has more than three metres of snow on its slopes which should last for a while, even in the warm weather. They only have seven lifts but all were running on Wednesday, along with their cat skiing operation. The good news is that heavy snow, totalling over a metre of fresh, is forecast to fall by Friday 2nd April, with lower temperatures too.
Over on the east coast a light dusting of snow fell at some of the resorts this week. Stowe (56/91cm) received around a centimetre of snow on Wednesday. This wasn’t enough to do anything to the snow conditions as it melted off pretty quick. Typical spring snow is what you can expect there at the moment but they still have enough snow to provide top to bottom runs.

CANADA
A decent dump of snow on the east coast of Canada has improved the skiing once again. 23cm fell on Wednesday 24th March at Mont Sainte-Anne (90/100cm). Although this powder won’t be the driest stuff in the world, it is excellent for this time of year and should ensure skiing through April.
It’s still pretty warm on the west coast, as you’d expect for the end of March. At Fernie (222cm), the freezing level was sitting at 2200m on Thursday 25th March. The temperature at the base is around 7°C so the snow down there is pretty slushy. The best snow is right at the top of the mountain but good grooming ensures skiing right down to base still, at 1000m.
Up in northern British Columbia, the Skeena Heli Ski (400cm) area still has excellent snow conditions. It is colder up there than in the south and with slopes above 3000m there is plenty of untracked powder around. If you have the money to spend on it, definitely go up there and give it a try.

EUROPEAN WEATHER OUTLOOK
A return to wintry weather is just around the corner in Europe as colder and very snowy weather should move in from Friday.
88cm of fresh snow is expected to fall at Les Deux Alpes in France over the weekend and into next week. The heaviest of the snow should be on Saturday 27th March when 33cm could fall, this is on top of 17cm forecast on Friday. The freezing level should also drop to around 1500m for the next six days, in contrast to nearly 3000m which it has been recently.
Austria should be cold and snowy as well, although less snowy than France. 50cm should fall on St Anton over the weekend and into next week, with the freezing level dropping to 900m on Wednesday.
Switzerland and Italy are expecting the same snowy and colder weather. 88cm of snow should fall at Zermatt and Saas Fee, which will give some awesome powder skiing all over the mountain.

NORTH AMERICAN WEATHER OUTLOOK
A whopping 125cm of fresh snow is expected at Timberline in Oregon. The heaviest of the snow should start on Sunday and then it is expected to keep snowing heavily all week. With the temperature dropping to -8°C during the day, a return to full winter weather is on the cards.
Resorts in California and Nevada should get another snowstorm on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday next week as well. Heavy snow is expected at Heavenly and Squaw Valley over those three days, bringing around half a metre of fresh snow with it.
Continuing their epic season, loads more snow is headed for Whistler in Canada. It should snow very heavily all weekend and the temperature should also drop significantly. Around 125cm of fresh snow is expected. Some of the snow will fall right down to base level at Whistler next week, proving that winter isn’t over just yet.
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