Val Gardena saw 40cm of snow in 24 hours

The news of more snowfall in the Alps will be well received in the UK. As the days become shorter over here, there are plenty of reasons to keep your spirits up. For all over Europe, snow has been falling as the new season promises to get off to a flier.

From Austria to Switzerland, France to Italy – the snow has been tumbling down. So which resorts got the best of it and how much snowfall was there?

Italy’s Val Gardena had a massive dump with nearly 3 feet of the white stuff, with half in just under 24 hours. Great news considering it isn’t due to open until the end of November. Should be covered in powder by the big season opening. Another big winner this week was Cortina with a foot and a half falling in the same period.

France welcomed the winter with open arms following a rather poor snow performance throughout October. As France’s only open ski area, Tignes got another 10 inches of new snow to keep it ticking over as the other resorts attempt to play catch up. The race is on to join Tignes as France’s first resorts to open for 09/10.

Don’t forget Austria. With the most resorts open across Europe, many ski areas reported fresh snowfall of various sizes from 20-30cm. The most snowed-upon was the Stubai Glacier, with about 30cm falling on Monday alone. With consistent snowfall through October and hopefully November, it looks to be a good start for Austria’s 2009/10 ski season.

Not far behind these three were Switzerland and Germany. Both receiving a decent level of snowfall, many glaciers are now open including the Swiss Engadin, Diableets and Zermatt glaciers as well as Germany’s Zugspitz, reachable from Berwang in Austria.

All in all it has been an excellent start to what should be a great ski season. Roll on 2009/10.

Image used courtesy of Oferiko.