Where to find the best skiing this Christmas

As skiers head off to the mountains for Christmas, the best skiing can be found in Canada, while in Europe it’s the Swiss resorts that have the best snow. Here’s a comprehensive update, courtesy of the Ski Club of Great Britain:

AUSTRIA
There has yet to be a substantial period of snowfall to develop the base depths in many resorts and areas, with large swathes of terrain yet to be opened, pending further snowfall or dropping temperatures to facilitate manmade coverage.

Longer term, it looks as though there is going to be a very mild, and potentially clear Christmas period. Temperatures in many low-laying resorts are barely below freezing and being only slight colder at higher altitudes. Saturday and Sunday are likely to be the best chances for some fresh snowfall across the country, however moving into the Christmas week, we are far more likely to see bright clear skies, except in isolated locations.

FRANCE
As we head towards the Christmas, conditions looked very good for the time of year, with fresh snow across many of our featured resorts. Les Arcs (40/155cm) received 85cm of fresh snow on Wednesday (left). La Plagne (15/145cm) was also enjoying great conditions thanks to 11cm of fresh overnight, and the area was running 25/75 lifts on Thursday, with 42/134 pistes open. Largely, resorts around the region enjoyed a fairly sunny start to the day, with clouds and snow the forecast for afternoon and into Friday.

In the southern French Alps, Serre Chevalier (227/73cm) was boasting the best upper piste depth of all our featured resorts. Light snow is predicted for the resort over the next couple of days.

Further north, fresh snow in the Grand Massif at Flaine (53/150cm) provided some nice options for off-piste skiing up high. Visibility was somewhat limited for the day, with current forecasts predicting heavy snowfall on Friday.

Unfortunately, rain has been falling at resorts such as Les Gets (50/125cm) and Morzine (85/125cm) in the Portes du Soleil, leading to rather soft and wet snow on runs back down to resort (though at least there’s plenty of snow). For the best skiing in the area look to Avoriaz (50/125cm), where slopes around Les Lindarets looked particularly good on Thursday.

The weekend ahead looks set for a mixture of sun and clouds and light snow for most resorts, and temperatures largely hovering just above freezing. Christmas Day is currently forecast to be sunny and cloudy for the majority, with snow moving in again around December 27.

SWITZERLAND
For many resorts in Switzerland, this week has offered some absolutely fantastic skiing, especially those resorts at higher altitudes, where for the most part fantastic snow quality has been paired with mild days and intermittent dustings to keep everything fresh. Highlights for the week include Verbier (32/150cm), Zermatt (18/220cm) and Andermatt (30/80cm).

Resorts were also able to expand access to a greater range of terrain over the course of the week, with the Four Valleys, the Jungfrau, Grimentz / Zinal and Davos/ Klosters all now running more than half of their lifts. Those is not the case across the entire country however, as smaller and lower laying resorts are still awaiting this coming weekend and likely further natural snowfall before then can operate more than a handful of lifts and allow skiing down to resort level. For those skiing over Christmas, it will undoubtedly be more than possible to skiing a wide range of slopes both on and off-piste, especially for those either based in higher altitude resorts or with the ability to move across the country to search out the best opportunities. There is an expectation of a further period of snow today.

Christmas Eve to Boxing day themselves however are currently forecast to be mild, clear and bright, with temperatures rarely dropping below freezing at resort level in many instances.

ITAY
In the Milky Way, there was a light dusting of snow in Sestriere and Claviere yesterday, which refreshed the pistes but unfortunately nothing substantial. The sun is set to continue throughout the week but the temperatures should be staying low enough for the snow cannons to continue maintaining the pistes good conditions. Bardonecchia has had a small top up of snow mid-week and is expecting up to 10cm of fresh snow to fall over the weekend. With this we hope to see more lifts opening up throughout the area as there is still limited skiing with only six lifts open.

In the Aosta Valley, Cervinia has seen fresh snow higher up the mountain with up to 15cm falling in the highest parts yesterday. The snow is set to continue throughout the next few days with up to 23cm scheduled to fall in the coming week, which will maintain the good conditions that can already be found on the pistes.

The off-piste conditions, like in many resorts throughout the Alpes, are limited but small areas of fresh snow can still be found in some areas.

The Dolomites area has seen no new snow fall recently but if temperatures stay low enough there should be a light dusting of snow on the weekend. There have been clear skies most of the week providing wonderful views and skiing on well maintained and groomed pistes this week. Madonna di Campiglio has seen new runs opening this week. Monte Rosa has seen similar weather with pisters working hard on the snow cannons to maintain good piste conditions with the limited off piste not providing as great skiing as the region is known for just yet. However, as it is early on in the season we are hoping to see much more snow fall in the coming months.

ANDORRA
Grandvalira has seen no new snow this week, with the temperatures slowly rising over the next few days, reaching a maximum of 7 degrees on Monday in most resorts. With this we will probably see the snow quality fall and rain to start making its way in. Although Vallnord has had more snow than Grandvalira, this area has also had no fresh snow fall and the temperatures will also be rising over the weekend. This will make it hard for the artificial snow to maintain the good piste conditions but the higher temperatures don’t look like they will last too long and should be back down to the minus’ in a weeks’ time.

EASTERN EUROPE
Mild days and predominantly clear skies continued to dominate the weather in Bulgaria, with little fresh snow to facilitate any expanded terrain opening across the country. Each of our three featured resorts had enough coverage, through a mix of natural and artificial snow to offer a reasonable range of terrain, with Pamporovo (100/85cm) currently boasting the largest snowpack.

Spindleruv Mlyn (0/50cm) continued to produce manmade snow in absence of any natural coverage, although the mercury was only sitting ever so slightly below freezing at resort level. This may change over the coming days, with the potential for light snowfall on any of the days between now and Sunday. Rosa Khutor (5/149cm) continued to suffer from warm days and a diminishing snowpack, with 20cm dropping from the reported upper mountain measurements in less than a week, thanks to it reaching as high as +10C in the village.

Jansa Nizke (46cm) benefitted from colder days this week, although the resort was still limited to 7/23 lifts on Thursday 20th December. The forecast snow over much of Eastern Europe this weekend is expected to only deliver a light freshen up of the slopes if it falls at all over the slopes.

USA
Conditions were unchanged across much of the USA in the early part of the week, though snowfall resumed across Colorado, and to a lesser extent across resorts in Utah, the Sierras and Cascades along the Pacific North East.

In Colorado, Copper Mountain saw 20cm in the past 48 hours, as did Loveland, with both resorts offering almost all their intermediate level terrain and an expanding range of their advanced bowls and advanced trails. Smaller quantities came down over much of the rest of the state, including Steamboat and Arapahoe Basin.

Although conditions in Utah were predominantly overcast for the most part, any snowfall only ever amounted to a few cm if at all. Christmas itself should be white across much of the central states, with anything up to 25cm possible to fall.

Terrain across the majority of East Coast resorts was machine groomed and packed, with isolated pockets of packed powder away from the most skied runs. Temperatures substantially warmer than are often recorded in these resorts have left the slopes soft and wet, rather than skiing close to sheet ice, as is more common. This may well deliver rain across Vermont and Maine, before shopping sharply on Saturday.

JAPAN
Conditions across Japan continued to be on the up on Thursday 20th, with the heavy snowfall continuing in Niseko (90/200cm), where the last 7 days have cumulatively seen 74cm, while in Hakuba (0/110cm), which was previously lacking saw an improved 64cm over seven days, 38cm of which came down in the past 72 hours. Both Niseko and Rusutsu saw lift operations impacted by high winds, though these calmed down somewhat on Thursday. All three resorts were now running the majority of their lifts, including the upper slopes in Niseko.

The current forecasts indicate this snow-filled spell will likely to continue through Christmas and Likely until New Year, growing heaviest around boxing day and beyond.

Snow Alert
Based on current weather forecasts for the next nine days, the top three resorts for expected snowfall are:
Timberline, USA, 105cm
Whistler, Canada, 90m
Gstaad, Switzerland, 88cm

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