Almost all Swiss resorts had a thick blanket of snow yesterday and it’s still snowing today, so if you’re off to Switzerland this weekend, we’re all jealous! Gstaad had 50cm of fresh on top of 410cm on the upper slopes (webcam), and Les Mosses had 51cm to top up the 288cm already on the upper pistes (webcam). Meanwhile, popular resorts of Klosters and Verbier had snowfalls of 10cm and 20cm respectively.
The snow on Thursday wasn’t confined to Switzerland. Austria had fresh snow too, and it’s expected to keep snowing today and tomorrow. The resort of Brand had 25cm of fresh powder in the last 24 hours, while Ischgl (webcam) and Kitzbuhel (webcam) had 10cm of fresh stuff each.
French resorts had snow on Wednesday and Thursday too, with Flaine receiving 30cm on Wednesday and then another 50cm yesterday (webcam) - so there's plenty of powder here. Temperatures are cold though, with highs of just -13ᵒC today and -14ᵒC tomorrow in Flaine, and even colder weather in high resorts such as Val Thorens (-18ᵒC today, -19ᵒC tomorrow). Wrap up warm when you hit the slopes! The snow is expected to continue in France next week, with up to 50cm more forecast to fall in some ski resorts in the Alps by next Friday.
Meanwhile the Spanish resort of Baqueira Beret in the Pyrenees (webcam) has had an incredible week with 30cm of snow this morning, and 50cm yesterday. In fact, in the last 7 days, the resort has had an amazing 158cm of fresh snow. However, the heavy snow in the Pyrenees actually closed a few resorts yesterday. The French resorts of Cauterets and Bareges (which raised its avalanche risk to 5 – the highest possible category) were closed.
In Canada, there’s good skiing to be had in Banff (webcam), which had some snow earlier in the week (4cm yesterday on top of 159cm on the upper slopes). Big White also had 6cm yesterday (webcam). There’s drier weather forecast for the weekend though, so not much new snow, but maybe some sunshine.
In the USA, Colorado woke to fresh snow yesterday, with 20cm in Vail (on top of 94cm), making this the best week of the season so far here (webcam). In California, it’s been sunny and although the ski resort of Mammoth (webcam) has a good base depth (229cm on lower slopes, and 457cm on upper slopes) there hasn’t been any fresh snow here for more than a week.
