Not long now until the ski season is here...

At ski-buzz, we love bringing you all the latest news when it comes to snowfall. And you know what they say – snow news is good news. So prepare to be happy. It’s been snowing again and the 09/10 ski season is getting closer every day. Now is the time to get in your loft and get your skis or snowboard down and prepare for the imminent new ski season.

There’s been fresh snow on both sides of the Atlantic this week to further build anticipation amongst the millions of skiers and boarders eagerly awaiting the start of winter 2009-10. In North America cold temperatures and natural snowfall have arrived earlier than expected in Colorado, USA allowing Loveland Ski Area, one of the world’s highest altitude resorts, to officially kick-off snowmaking for the 2009-2010 ski season.

At Steamboat Ski Area the first snow of the season was reported just below the top of Christie Peak at about 8,000 feet with between a trace to half an inch as you moved up from the top of the gondola up to the summit of Mt. Werner. The Steamboat Ski Area opens for the 2009/10 season in two months on November 25, 2009.

Excitement is also mounting in the Alps as half a dozen glacier ski areas prepare to open for the winter 2009-10 in the first weeks of October in Austria, France, Italy and Switzerland. Cervinia, Engelberg and Tignes are all on the list of areas expected to join the resorts that have already opened, such as Pitztal in Austria, or have been open all summer like Saas Fee and Zermatt in Switzerland, Passo Stelvio and Val Senales in Italy and Hintertux in Austria.

Austria once again has the greatest choice of snow slopes, now back up to five for the first time since the spring with the Stubai Glacier opening a month earlier than originally planned, Sölden’s glacier opening two weeks later than planned and the Kitzsteinhorn glacier above Kaprun, which had closed due to lack of snow on the glacier in August, reopening. They join Tux and the recently re-opened Pitztal glaciers.

The Dachstein glacier is currently reported to be closed although it notes 20cm (8 inches) of snow on the pistes.

Sölden has only 3.1km (2miles) of piste open and three glacier lifts, with quite a thin covering of snow on the glacier pistes, but fresh snow has fallen giving a few centimetres of powder on top, so no one lucky enough to be there is complaining. The lifts are open from 9am to 1pm and reached by a bus service from the village.

Elsewhere in Europe, Tignes in France will re-open this Saturday, September 26th for its long season through to next May, 2010. Saas Fee and Zermatt are both still open with around 90cm (three feet) of snow each. In Italy the choice is between Passo Stelvio and Val Senales, due to be joined shortly by Cervinia, opening weekends, through most of October before full opening in November.

In Chile, Portillo hasn’t added much to the eight metre (26 feet) tally-to-date for seasonal snowfall it passed some weeks ago now, reporting only a centimetre (half inch) of new snow in the past week. However it still has a healthy base from top (210cm/7 feet) to bottom (137cm/4.5 feet) of the mountain.

Image appears courtesy of NachoMC.

Related posts:

1. Snowbird Extends Ski Season To June