Heavy snowfall has some Wash. ski areas opening

MOUNT BAKER, Wash. - Heavy snowfall in the Cascade Range has some Washington ski areas preparing to open.

Mount Baker Ski Area says it's received more than 45 inches of new snow in the last few days, and it plans to open on Thursday.

Crystal Mountain, meanwhile, says it's gotten about 2 feet recently and could open for limited operations on Wednesday.

Ski Season Begins Early

Early snow fall, colder temperatures and perhaps a sprinkle of P.R. have led ski resorts in North America, Europe and elsewhere to open early.

Loveland Ski Area, a small family-oriented resort about 50 miles west of Denver, opened on Oct. 7, about the same time that Las Vegas Ski & Snowboard Resort, about 45 minutes from the Las Vegas Strip, welcomed skiers. They were followed closely by Arapahoe Basin in Colorado and Boreal Mountain Resort on Lake Tahoe.

Even the Mammoth Mountain Si Area in California, which wasn’t scheduled to open until mid November, got dumped on last week and opened lifts, according to the L.A Examiner.

Similar snow reports are coming from the Alps, the Indian Himalayas and the Japanese Alps, according to the online Ski Magazine, First Tracks. Saas Fee and Zermatt got plenty of snow and are already open, as are with Cervinia, Val Senales and Passo Stelvio in Italy.

Getting heavy in Heavenly

The Californian resorts in the Tahoe area have been battered this week by the biggest winter storm this season, which has brought huge amounts of snow and some high winds.

In Heavenly and Squaw Valley, they received a colossal 200cm of snow on Sunday night when the storm began. 91cm alone fell on Tuesday night at Heavenly and that was on top of the 85cm that fell the previous night! It continued to snow all day Wednesday but the skies have cleared to reveal a landscape covered in nearly eight feet of new snow. Despite this they are only reporting four lifts closed, so the powder hounds should be out in force this weekend.

In California, Mammoth has also been getting dumped on, with their most recent reported snowfall being 61cm on Tuesday night. It has supposed to continue snowing all through Wednesday and Wednesday night and their upper base of nearly five metres is way above average for the time of year. This season so far is one of their best in a long time, with over ten metres of snow having fallen so far.

Isola 2000 cut off by avalanches

Hundreds of people were said to be trapped by heavy snowfall in the British-built ski resort over the weekend, after three avalanches blocked the winding mountain road leading up to resort. There were no reports of injuries, but the French army and police officers had to be called in as well as an emergency team to work round-the-clock to try and clear a path to Isola 2000. According to the Isola 2000 website, the road between Isola Village and Isola 2000 has now re-opened. The resort has experienced heavy snowfall throughout the season, contributing to a huge current snowbase of 3m! The resort had around 30cm of fresh snow last week, and were expecting another 30-50cm over the weekend.