 Poster: A snowHead
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NZ: Patchy, Australia: Holding up well, Andes: Great, European Alps: unsettled. El Nino and La Nina conditions have a profound effect on the weather patterns around the Pacific. Last season was dominated by a strong El Nino event which gave Australia a poor season compared to New Zealand where a prevailing southerly brought regular dumps of snow right up until January. This year, the sudden collapse of El Nino looked very likely to lead to only a brief spell of neutral conditions before a moderate La Nina event took over, but lately it seems more likely that the present neutral conditions may hold out for the rest of the winter. August is regarded as peak season for many Southern ski resorts with a notable exception of Turoa and Whakapapa of the North Island of New Zealand where high altitude and a rocky volcanic setting mean that the best conditions are usually in late September or early October (and often lasting into November and even beyond)...
New Zealand
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Conditions in New Zealand have improved but they are still a bit patchy. Broadly speaking, the main resorts at either end of the country are in reasonable shape, but around the middle in places like the Canterbury club fields where there is no snowmaking, things are not going according to plan. Although most resorts are now at least partially open, typical 20-40cm natural snow depths are not enough for much off-piste action. While it is not the worst season on record, there have only been three or four worse starts in the past 25 years - indeed, just calling it a bad start is being optimistic - at small club fields the season would normally be two-thirds over by now but this year it has begun very late because early winter was very cold, but dry. Last week, as we expected, most places saw only modest snowfalls, heaviest around Otago - say 10-20cm. Thankfully, this was good enough to allow Mt. Dobson to open at last and to make the piste conditions excellent at most resorts, especially at places like Porters and Cardrona where new snow fell on decent base. The next 7 days promise to bring a low pressure system across South Island and unlike previous storms, this one should hang off the East Coast for long enough to direct a southerly at the Canterbury fields that desperately need it before a high moves off the Tasman mid-week. All resorts with snowmaking facilities will benefit from a week of lower temperatures, but at this stage it does not look as if the low pressure system will drop a great deal of snow - enough to make things excellent on piste but probably still insufficient to allow for extensive back-country skiing and boarding apart from places like Ohau and Treble Cone where there was already a reasonable off-piste base covering rocks before the fresh snow fell. With just a little luck, we should see enough fresh snow for poor Mt Olympus to open at last and as soon as it does, I hope to be there because it really is a great ski area once the rocks are covered.
Australia
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Over the Tasman, snow conditions have held up well and most resorts have had a dusting of new snow, with a big dump for Tasmania so that Mt Lomond which was bare just a few weeks ago was the pick of the bunch last week with 40cm of fresh snow. There was a worrying prospect of a warm nor'wester mid-week. In the event it was no worse than freezing levels climbing up to about 2100m so it has made for some heavy afternoon skiing but has not done much damage to the cover. Most resorts should see fresh snowfall from the present showery SW airstream before high pressure builds in around Sunday or Monday with a mostly settled week to follow. Excellent conditions early in the week, but freezing levels rising each day so that things could get quite crusty off piste by late in the week if a freeze-thaw pattern gets established as we expect.
Andes
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The great 2007 season provided another fine week at resorts across South America with several resorts in Chile now reporting more than 3m of cover and modest fresh snowfalls in most resorts last week. The prospects are for a couple of dry days before an unsettled Westerly airstream develops, with the promise of widespread and heavy snowfalls next week - more especially further south with heavy falls on Monday and again on Wednesday/Thursday. Excellent conditions between and after, but with cold and gusty winds. Once again, the Andes offer the best worldwide prospects for skiing this week.
European Alps
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The Mölltal glacier in Austria has now reopened for summer skiing. Tignes is again closed due to strong winds today (Thursday) leaving Les Deux Alpes as the only open French summer skiing resort open. In Switzerland, Saas Fe and Zermatt had some new snow earlier in the week and are open again while the glaciers in Austria are open but tend to be a bit too soft and are losing a bit of snow depth. The week ahead starts ok, but then continues the distinctly unsettled theme with a growing risk of thunderstorms right across the Alps. It's not a great prospect and this week would be a very good one to abandon the snow and head for the Atlantic Coast instead - a distinctly autumnal low storm in the North Atlantic is currently directing a big swell towards the coasts of Northern Spain and SW France.
South Africa
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I would be very surprised if either Morocco or South Africa ever hosts the Winter Olympics, but surprisingly the mountains at either end of the vast continent offer limited skiing. Surfers from Durban head up to Tiffindell, which is 300km away as the crow flies and a lot further by winding road. That may seem like a bit of hike for a weekend, but it compares favourably with the closest "proper" ski resort - Faraya in Lebanon is 7000km away according to our nearest resort listing. Tiffindell lies just below 3000m Ben McDuie and gets by with a mix of natural and carefully managed artificial snow - the cold nights are ideal for the machines and right now they have a good cover despite the warm sun. Some much colder days with a few snow showers in prospect for the week ahead.
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