The Ski Season of 2024/25 is Underway
28th November 2024
Last modified on December 5th, 2024
There’s some snow forecast for this week with some colder temperatures. 100 ski areas are now open. PlanetSKI reports from the Alps. UPDATED
This week across the Alps it has been relatively unsettled with some snow in the forecast for the weekend.
“High pressure is currently in charge of the weather in the Alps, meaning that most areas will have plenty of sunshine today,” said Fraser Wilkin from weathertoski.co.uk on Thursday.
“That said, cloud will thicken in the north-western Alps later today, heralding the arrival of a warm front that will bring some rain and snow to the northern Alps, first in France and western Switzerland, before reaching eastern Switzerland and western Austria later tonight.
“The rain/snow limit will be around 2000m in the west and 1500m further east.”
See here for the detailed weekly forecast from weathertoski.co.uk
PlanetSKI has just arrived in Tignes.
“Here at Tignes Le Lac we had a few centimetres of snow overnight which added to a slowly building base of 40cms,” said reporter, Simon Miller, on Tuesday.
“The top station is reporting 80cm.
“The temperature dropped through the day as light winds came in from the north.
“The piste conditions are hard packed with ice in patches and the off piste is skiable with plenty of caution,” added Simon.
Tignes, France. Image c/o PlanetSKI
More resorts opened at the weekend including Val d’Isere, Ischgl and Chamonix.
Verbier in Switzerland has opened more of its ski area and is now open on a daily basis.
Here’s Warren Smith, from the Warren Smith Ski Academy,
PlanetSKI started it season the previous weekend and was in Gurgl in Austria for our first turns of the 24/25 season.
Gurgl. Image c/o PlanetSKI
It was warm at the start of last week with the freezing level up to 3,000m or so.
The the temperature fell and the snow guns have been doing their stuff.
Gurgl, Austria. Image © PlanetSKI
Austria has dozens of ski areas open including Soelden, Hintertux, Kaprun and Saalbach.
Here’s Kuhtai near Innsbruck that has also fired up its lift for the start of the season.
More resorts in France have opened after Tignes and Val Thorens fired up their lifts at the end of October.
Along with Val d’Isere and the Grand Montets in Chamonix, other big name one tha have opened include Les 2Alpes and Alpe d’Huez.
In Italy around half a dozen ski areas are open but one, Bormio, has announced a delay to proceedings.
It 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.”
In Switzerland Verbier, Zermatt, Sass-Fee, Engleberg, St Moritz, Adelboden and Glacier 3000 are among those open.
It is looking good in Scandinavia, with more resorts opening this weekend.
Norefjell and Geilo in Norway are set to get their ski seasons underway.
See here for a related PlanetSKI article as we look at the growth of skiing by the British in Norway, Sweden and Finland.
In the Pyrenees there has been some snow but not in large amounts with the freezing level at around 2,000m.
Baqueira Beret in Spain and the Grandvalira area in Andorra are hoping to open shortly.
Grandvalira had planned to open on Saturday November 30th but due to a lack of snowy conditions the opening has been delayed to December 6th at the earliest.
“All in all it is a solid start to the ski season in the Alps with fresh snow and now generally cold temperatures,” said the PlanetSKI editor, James Cove, who has been in the Austrian Alps.
“Nothing can quite beat seeing conditions with one’s own eyes and talking to trusted people out in the mountains rather than relying on social media posts and often inaccurate reports – both positive and negative.
“It is of course far too early to tell what the winter will be like but with December start there is cause for some early season optimism.”
James Cove in the Autrian Alps this week. Image © PlanetSKI
Over in North America winter has started superbly in many areas with resorts opening for the Thanksgiving Weekend in the USA.
Heavy snow continues to fall across many of the ski states and we have a full article on conditions on PlanetSKI:
Do check back for PlanetSKI updates as the winter season of 24/25 gets underway and we add more images and videos…
Gurgl, Austria. Image © PlanetSKI
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