Blizzard batters parts of the Alps

Extremely heavy snowfall forced Val d’Isère, Saas Fee and Alagna to temporarily close on Monday, whilst Tignes only managed to open 2 lifts due to the extreme weather.

The weekend skiing in France was fantastic with largely sunny skies on Saturday and Sunday combined fresh powder off-piste. However Monday wa a completely different story in the Espace Killy. A metre of snow had fallen since Sunday morning and was still coming down hard on Monday. Tignes only managed to open two lifts on Monday morning, including one drag lift on the beginner slopes and the Tichot chair from Val Claret.

It was a similar story in the northern Italian Alps, close to the French and Swiss borders, where it has been snowing extremely heavily. Alagna has received 100cm of snow since Sunday morning and all the lifts were shut on Monday due to huge amounts of fresh snow.

Zermatt and Saas Fee both got lots of snow on Monday, and Saas Fee had to temporarily close as a result of the high winds and heavy snow, but conditions should be fantastic when they re-open.

Elsewhere in the Alps, the sun has been getting through and resorts in the Southern Dolomites enjoyed a bright weekend.

The outlook is for large snowfalls in the south western Alps. Austrian resorts are expecting between 10cm and 30cm of snow for the week ahead, and Isola 2000 in France was expecting 15cm on Monday and 22cm on Tuesday.

The eastern side of the Alps isn’t expecting anywhere near as much snow, but temperatures are forecast to be low so the snow will stay in great condition.

Resort News

MONTGENEVRE - Chondolas (a mix fo gondolas and chairs) continue their inexorable alpine rise with not one but two opening in Montgenevre this season. Les Chalmettes gondola, which accesses the intermediate friendly north facing Gondrans slopes, is being replaced and another is planned to link this area with the Chavlet slopes. The good news? This will replace a soul-sapping uphill walk. Kids and families will rejoice!

HINTERTUX - Peak-time queues to get up the Hintertux glacier will be eased this season with the opening of a new 24-man gondola, the Gletscher I, from the base of the resort up to Sommerbergalm. It may sound like a spaceship but we are assured it is a conventional gondola. It replaces one of the old parallel gondolas which has now been decommissioned.

ZERMATT - Beginners get the benefit here with a new nursery slope at Leisse, just above the Sunnegga funicular and new linking lift this will be ideal for kids and first-timers.

LA THUILE - Small is beautiful in La Thuile this season. A new fast quad is being built near the base to serve three new runs, a blue, a red and a black. Keeping them short and sweet, the lift only rises 180m but all runs are powered by artifical snow.

TREMBLANT - Access to and from the sunny side of the mountai will be greatly improved this season with a new eight-seat gondola which will link the Versant Soleil sector with the centre of the village.

Snow News

- There is fine sunny weather on Monday across the open Austrian resorts.
- The combination of last weeks fresh snow at Tignes and the cold weather this week is providing excellent riding conditions on the glacier.
- The Swiss resorts of Saas Fee and Zermatt both offer great autumn riding on their glaciers.
- Glorious sunny weather blesses the open Italian resorts on Monday.
- Geilo in Norway is open for snowsports but the amount of terrain available is limited at the moment.
- In Scotland Cairngorm is now closed for lift maintenance until early December. The Lecht is also now closed but this is due to the lack of snow.
- Breckenridge and Keystone in America opened over the weekend and Mammoth received 30cm of fresh snow on Saturday.
- Lake Louise and Mount Norquay at Banff in Canada both opened on 8th November, offering good skiing. Sunshine Village is scheduled to open on 11th November.