A lot of snow came down around the Ecrins, in the western and southern Piemonte and around the Ortler. The resorts at the border of France and Switzerland and France and Italy received a fair amount of snow. Around 10-20 centimeters came down at 2200 meters altitude, but in some places they got around 40 centimeters! Around 2-10 centimeters came down just north of the main alpine ridge, which is obviously a lot less. It’s still snowing around the Ortler, but the waiting game will start right after.
Summary:
- 10-20, locally 40 cm of freshies with cold temperatures
- Today and tomorrow (Friday) are powder days
- The waiting game will start right after
Today is a powderday
Yes it is, but you’ll have to work for it. The glaciers in Austria and Switzerland got some freshies. The glaciers in Tignes and Les 2 Alpes got more snow (but also some wind), but the largest amounts of freshies can be found around the Ortler and the Mont Viso, in the heart of the main alpine ridge.
Two resorts are open around the Ortler. The lifts on the Stelvio Pass are still running and Sulden opened this week. But there aren’t resorts around the Mont Viso that have their lifts running already. You’ll have to earn your turns. The Col Agnel is reporting around 40 centimeters of freshies and east of the Mont Viso around 30-45 centimeters came down. With a surface of grass and the base that came down in the beginning of October, you’ll find some good snow here today and tomorrow, maybe even this weekend. But… the temperature will rise on Saturday.
In short:
- Lots of lift-accessed freshies: Stelvio Pass and Sulden
- Lots of fresh snow without lifts: Col Agnel
- A fair amount of freshies (and wind): Tignes and Les 2 Alpes
- Not that much freshies: Glaciers in Austria and Switzerland
The waiting game?
High pressure will enter the Alps, keeping the humid air from the west and the cold air from the east at distance. And the weather models aren’t that positive. The weather just could stay like this till the second week of November.
But there’s hope! The models are quite bad in forecasting the moment storm depressions reach the Alps again after such a high pressure block. So all we have to do is have a look at the snow maps every once in a while…
Till that time: there’s plenty of snow coming down in North America, because our snowmaps show some nice colours. It was about time!
Next update on Monday!
Stay stoked!
Morris