MP3 player saves lost skiers

A skier and a boarder were saved by the light of an mp3 player after they got lost in the Swiss Alps.

The 22-year-old men got lost after setting off from the resort of Savognin, in south east Switzerland on Friday. They were suffering from mild hypothermia as they has to endure overnight temperatures of -15C.

They were able to alert the authorities using a mobile phone, but it when it ran out of battery power all they had left was an MP3 player, which the snowboarder had been using to listen to music.

Airborne rescuers were eventually able to reach the pair high on a wooded slope after being guided by the light of the digital music player.

A cold Christmas and frosty New Year

After a sunny but cold Christmas period in the Alps, France and Switzerland are looking forward to more snow during the coming week, whilst over in North America, the heavy snow that continues to fall in both the east and west is a welcome sight.

In Europe, it's France which is expecting the heaviest of the snow over the New Year period. Isola 2000 in the Southern Alps, is expecting 75cm of snow over the next five days, in addition to the monumental amounts of snow they had two weeks ago. This resulted in the resort being completely cut off due to avalanches across the access roads.
The more northern part of the French Alps is expecting between 20cm and 40cm, which will be greatly appreciated by New Year skiers, as it has been very sunny in France for the last ten days and the pistes are getting increasingly packed down.

Switzerland is also expecting some snow during the middle of the week but isn't expected to be anywhere near as heavy as in France. The snowiest of the Swiss resorts should be Saas Fee and Zermatt where 31cm is expected to land by the end of the week.

Austria is set to be largely sunny for the coming week. Clear skies and cold temperatures should mean the fresh snow over the Christmas period can be perfectly preserved. Temperatures in the higher resorts will drop dramatically, especially in Obergurgl and Obertauern, so be sure to wrap up very warm this New Year!

Over in the US, Snowbird and Alta in Utah have both received nearly 150cm of snow in the last five days, living up to their legendary powder status. In Canada, Whistler should see a whopping 155cm of fresh powder over the next five days, whilst Revelstoke is 85cm and Kicking Horse is forecast a respectable 67cm of snow.

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.

Lifts stopped by cold in Canada

Low temperatures in Calgary, Alberta, led to the region’s Olympic Park ski area shutting down on Friday because the weather was too cold for the lifts to operate within required limits.

An Arctic Storm brought temperatures down to -27C during the daytime on Friday with wind chill below -40C. The cold weather is expected to continue for several more days and may bring actual temperatures as low as -40C. The cold weather has been accompanied by strong winds of up to 41mph.

Canada Olympic Park cancelled all outdoor activities, but park spokesman Stewart McDonough told local media that it was rare for the park to shut down due to bad weather. However the lifts should not operate in strong winds or very low temperatures. The forecast high at present is about -31C.

Snow for the Southern Alps!

The more southerly French resorts and the Italian resorts should benefit the most from the predicted storm, which could bring up to 100cm of fresh snow to some Italian resorts by Monday.

Cervinia, which has been open since early November, is expecting around 50cm over the weekend, and Madonna di Compaglio opened today, about a week ahead of schedule. They are expecting a phenomenal 100cm of fresh snow by Monday!

In France, Alpe d'Huez plans to open this weekend, along with Val d'Isère and Les Deux Alpes, and conditions are already looking good with a base of 60cm on the upper slopes and a light dusting expected on Saturday and Sunday.

Serre Chevalier is looking forward to 26cm of new snow thanks to the storm but doesn't currently plan to open until 13th December.

In Austria, it's been a great week for snow conditions and the Arlberg region and parts of the Ski Welt will be open from either Friday or Saturday. And in Switzerland, cold temperatures preserved the great snowfall that many resorts had over the weekend, and more is expected to arrive. Saas Fee and Zermatt should be particularly happy with over 60cm forecast in each resort!