Ruka Ready To Open
Ruka Ready To Open
Published : 09-Oct-2016 10:07
Ruka in Lapland, northen Finland says it intends to open for its eight month 2016-17 ski season tomorrow, Monday, October 10th - six days earlier than last year.
Ruka has the reputation for the longest snow season for a non-glacier or permanent-snow-field resort in the world and was formerly open from October to June for snowsports although in recent seasons has closed mid-May.
The resort sometimes opens thanks to snowmaking with sub-zero October temperatures at its northerly latitude but this year is bringing in large volumes of snow stock-piled from last season to cover its main run.
This is a technique also used by the Norwegian resort Geilo which has opened a run at the end of September for the past few seasons.
Elsewhere natural snowfall has continued to bring early promise of a good snow season in most of the world's leading ski areas.
Last week saw accumulations of up to 17 inches (38cm) of natural snowfall on higher slopes in Western North America with Jackson Hole, Park City and Whistler amongst those posting pictures of particularly snowy slopes.
There was also up to 20cm of fresh snow on already-open glaciers in the Alps and the Dolomites got a white covering this weekend.
Snowmaking is underway in Colorado where resorts like Arapahoe Basin and Loveland may be able to open in the next week or two.
In the Alps the first 'non-glacier' resorts expect to open in the next 2-3 weeks thanks to clever snowmaking with Arosa in Switzerland and Kitzbuhel in Austria both expecting to begin snowsports in the latter half of October.
It may be too early to tell for sure but it's still good to see.
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