An Arctic blast from the north collided with a warmer, wetter front from the south at the weekend and brought up to half a metre of snow in many higher Alpine resorts, and dustings down to lower levels. Andorra in the Pyrenees was also celebrating the onset of winter.
Hintertux and Piztal glaciers in Austria had just the fresh snow they needed to soften up the hard-packed conditions there, there were decent falls in Zermatt and Verbier in Switzerland while Val Thorens was among French resorts getting their first taste of winter after the lingering Autumn warmth. Les Deux Alpes reported 15cm on Sunday.
Excessive snowfall and strong winds forced the cancellation of Sunday’s season-opening men’s World Cup giant slalom at Soelden in Austria, where the glacier remains closed due to the storm.
Such early snow is notoriously fickle, however, and although plenty more is forecast in the next couple of days, Alpine temperatures are forecast to rise back into double figures by the end of this week. But enjoy this glimpse into the coming season and start looking forward to the more concentrated downward tumbles in the temperatures that will really load up the pistes.
Here at Snow, we will be running our weekly snow reports again, once the season gets under way, with up-to-date news of snowfalls and skiing conditions in Europe, the US and Canada.
But, in the meantime, the resorts have been out filming and celebrating their first real snow of the season, so here are some more images to get you in the mood for a snowy winter to rival 2017/18...
Val d’Isère
Les Deux Alpes
Courchevel
La Clusaz
Zermatt
Wengen
Andorra
We particularly like this bit of video from Meribel…
