More Resorts Open as Winter Approaches
23rd November 2024
Last modified on November 27th, 2024
Val Thorens and Tignes are the first French ski resorts to open. PlanetSKI reports from the Alps. UPDATED
The warm weather that briefly hit the Alps on Sunday and into Monday has come to an end.
Freezing levels exceed 3,000m for a time as the temperature shot up.
Now it has dropped
“Another, relatively weak, cold front will cross the Alps on Thursday bringing a further modest top-up of snow to some northern parts of the Alps with a rain/snow limit falling from about 1800-2000m to 1000-1500m, lowest in Austria,” said Fraser Wilkin from weathertoski.
“Following last week’s big storms, snow cover remains relatively impressive at high altitude across the north-western Alps (e.g. Tignes, Verbier, Zermatt, Engelberg).
“Lower down and further east or south, snow cover is more modest or patchy, but this is entirely normal for the time of year.”
PlanetSKI was at Gurgl in Austria at the weekend and it was bitterly cold with the morning temperature at -8.
PlanetSKI in Austria. Image © PlanetSKI
PlanetSKI in Austria. Image © PlanetSKI
By Sunday afternoon it was +5.
There is good covering on the pistes, but there is no off piste to ski and this part of the Alps needs some more natural snow.
Gurgl, Austria. Image © PlanetSKI
But on the piste with grooming and artificial snow the skiing has been superb.
Gurgl, Austria. Image © PlanetSKI
Here’s PlanetSKI’s first video snow report of the winter that comes from our editor, James Cove, who is in Gurgl in Austria.
James was in Gurgl for the World Cup slalom skiing and watched GB’s Dave Ryding in action:
For the time being there remains snow down to the valley floor in the western Tirol.
This image was taken from a flight out of Innsbruck on Monday morning.
Austria. Image © PlanetSKI
Over in the French Alps the season is now underway with Tignes and Val Thorens opening at the weekend.
Tignes has seen perhaps the most amount of snow with well over 1m above 2,200m from the recent storms.
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Val Thorens is starting its season which goes through to the first weekend of May.
“La Grande Première is an unmissable event for ski enthusiasts, offering the ideal opportunity to warm up, sharpen up and plan for the approaching winter,” said a spokesperson from Val Thorens.
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However, the opening has been marred by an accident to the Cime Caron cable car last week that injured six workers, two seriously.
It remains out of action as an investigation continues.
The Grands Montets area in Chamonix had planned to open but that has been postponed.
Next weekend more French resorts are set to open including Les2Alpes and Alpe d’Huez.
Tignes and Val Thorens are the first resorts to open in France, though many areas have been open for several weeks in Austria, Italy and Switzerland.
We detail them lower down this article.
One resort though has delayed its opening.
Bormio in Italy was due to open on 30th November but there is not enough snow.
It has snowed but the resort says, “the accumulation wasn’t substantial enough due to low temperatures and strong winds.”
Schladming, in Austria, opened at the weekend.
Austria has not seen the levels of snow that have been falling in the norther western Alps and the resorts in France and Switzerland, but conditions remain good for the time of year.
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More than 70 ski areas have now opened in more than a dozen countries in Asia, Europe and North America.
As promised here are some of the ski areas in the Alps that are now open:
Austria
- Hintertux
- Pitztal
- Stubai
- Soelden
- Kaunertal
- Moltaller
- Gurgl
- Kitzbuhel
- Schladming
- Silvretta/Montafon
France
- Tignes,
- Val Thorens
Italy
- Passo Stelvio
- Val Senales
- Cervinia
- Sulden
- Madonna
Switzerland
- Adelboden
- Arosa/Lenzerheide
- Engleberg
- Murren
- St Moritz
- Saas-Fee
- Zermatt
- Glacier 3000
- Davos
Elsewhere in Europe Scandinavia has seen fresh snow and cold temperatures.
There remains just a handful of ski areas open in Finland, Norway and Sweden but bigger resorts including Are, Geilo, Hemsedal, Pyha, Yllas and Trysil are set to open shortly.
There’s currently no ski area open in the Pyrenees yet but Baqueira Beret in Spain has snow falling and hopes to open shortly.
In Asia, some Japanese ski areas have been posting their first decent dumps of the autumn on higher slopes with 20-40cm accumulations ahead of official opening dates.
This winter PlanetSKI will be in Japan from the end of January to the beginning of March – six weeks in total – so we will be keeping a close eye on the snow conditions over the coming weeks.
In the Alps the temperature is now set to shoot up and the freezing level could be at 3,500m shortly so much of the snow at low altitude will melt.
Do check back…
