Snow Falls in the Alps as More Resorts Open
16th November 2022
Last modified on November 21st, 2022
The latest images of the snow we have come from Kappl in the Paznaun Valley in the Tirol, Austria.
It’s beginning to look a bit more like winter with snow even down to the valley floor.
Image c/o Paznaun Valley
Image c/o Paznaun Valley
PlanetSKI’s reporter, Katy Dartford, is in Obergurgl in the Tirol in Austria as it opened for its first weekend of the season.
The slopes in Gurgl opened on Thursday.
There are now 12 lifts running, serving 22km of pistes – that’s around 20% of its ski area.
This was the scene on Sunday morning as she flung open the curtains.
Fresh snow:
Obergurgl, Austria. Image © PlanetSKI
And at the base of the resort as she set off for skiing:
Obergurgl, Austria. Image © PlanetSKI
On Saturday there was an estimated 4,500 people on the slopes of Obergurgl with a claimed depth of 30cm at the top of the resort.
There was relief all round today that Gurgl had managed to open for the season.
“Everyone has been working really hard, round the clock to make this happen,” said Daniel Goldstein from the Otztal tourist board.
Obergurgl, Austria. Image © PlanetSKI
Obergurgl, Austria. Image © PlanetSKI
Obergurgl, Austria. Image © PlanetSKI
See here for Katy’s full report:
Katy Dartford, Obergurgl, Austria. Image © PlanetSKI
Elsewhere in the Alps here’s the scene in the Swiss resort of Verbier that was open again at the weekend.
It opened a small area, Lac des Vaux, the previous weekend as we reported at the time:
Davos Parsenn is Switzerland opened at the weekend and then continuous skiing will start on Thursday 24th. November.
The Swiss resort 0f Andermatt has also opened some terrain this weekend.
In the French resort of Val Thorens snow is falling:
MODE HIVER ACTIVÉ ❄️✅
——
WINTER MOOD ACTIVATED ❄️✅ #LiveFromValThorens #WantToSki pic.twitter.com/kEvvs8L0r6— ❄️ Val Thorens ❄️ (@Val_Tho) November 18, 2022
While in Tignes:
Retour de la neige ce matin du côté de @TignesOfficiel. 😍❄️❄️❄️ pic.twitter.com/7i90c0vOET
— ESI Ecole de ski (@ESIski) November 18, 2022
There has been some flurries of fresh snow across other parts of the mountains and some ski resorts have posted images of the snow.
And by the end of the weekend…
“Things will start to get interesting on Sunday evening/night as more active fronts arrive from the west, which should bring some significant snow to the French and western Swiss Alps before a new Mediterranean storm puts the southern Alps (i.e. Italy) in the firing line on Tuesday,” said the alpine weather expert, Fraser Wilkin from weathertoski.co.uk
For all the latest keep an eye on Weathertoski as Fraser follows these things rather closely.
A warm autumn has already led to Val Thorens postponing this weekend’s planned opening until the following weekend, November 26th.
Val d’Isere has moved its opening back to December 3rd.
Tignes is due to open on November 26th and is planning to have a run open on its Grande Motte glacier this weekend.
We reported on the developments earlier on PlanetSKI.
The warm weather and lack of snow this autumn has also played havoc with the start of the alpine skiing World Cup season with most of the races called off.
- More World Cup ski races cancelled
- First World Cup race of the season cancelled due to bad weather
- Zermatt to Cervinia World Cup Downhills called off
Though this weekend’s women’s racing in Levi in Finland went ahead.
No prizes for guessing who won.
Aaaaand we present you the first podium of the season!!!@MikaelaShiffrin gets her fifth reindeer and wins her 48th slalom race
Anna Swenn Larsson is back on the podium, taking her eighth podiums
And the other queen of Levi @PetraVlhova finished third!
Congrats 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻#fisalpine pic.twitter.com/HgP32m1ryy— FIS Alpine (@fisalpine) November 19, 2022
And look what GB’s Charlie Guest did in the first run:
9th after the first run 🤩❤️
Incredible 1st run from @Charlie_Guest1 @worldcuplevi 🫡
2nd run starts at 1 PM ⏱️
📸: @gepapictures
#GBSnowsport pic.twitter.com/okf1k7FHS5— GB Snowsport (@GBSnowsport) November 19, 2022
The Pyrenees
In the Pyrenees there was some snow in the forecast earlier.
[SNOW] Up to 30cm of fresh snow as low as 1400m is expected over the @FrenchPyrenees in the next few days
📷 @Meteo_Pyrenees pic.twitter.com/gCZz0GbyYp— French Mountains (@FrenchMountains) November 16, 2022
Some resorts in the Pyrenees have also had to delay their openings.
Neige Catalanes, a group of ski resorts in the Pyrenees-Orientales has aid “We will be roughly a week late in the stations that had announced; opening at the end of November. And for those planning to open in early December, well see.”
Les Angles in the French Pyrenees said “They announce cold weather for next week and snow this weekend, so everything can change very quickly” .
Les Angles said he resorts have “enough water to make artificial snow,” he said.
In Andorra Grandvalira, Ordino Arcalís and Pal Arinsal should open at from December 2nd, weather conditions permitting, although it is possible that the slopes may open earlier.
Resorts Open in the Alps
Austria: Obergurgl, Kaunertal, Kitzbuhel, Soelden, Piztal, Stubai, Hintertux, Molltal, and Kitzsteinhorn.
Italy: Sulden, Cervinia and Val Senales.
Switzerland: Andermatt, Davos, Zermatt, Saas-Fee, Engelberg, Arosa/Lenzerheide and Verbier.
See here for our latest report on resorts opening some ski areas as winter approaches.
Here at PlanetSKI we will be watching things closely and updating over the next few days.
Do check back… and don’t forget those snow dances.
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