J2Ski Snow Report - April 10th 2025
J2Ski Snow Report - April 10th 2025
Published : 10-Apr-2025 08:19
Fabulous spring skiing in Ischgl, Austria this week.
Spring gains ground, but it's not over yet with fresh snow reported in parts of the northern hemisphere.
The Snow Headlines - April 10th
- Big snowfalls in The Rockies, 50cm of fresh snowfall in Arizona and Colorado to start week.
- More than 500km of slopes still open in 3 Valleys, over 8,000 acres at Whistler.
- Eastern European ski areas post up to 30cm of weekend snowfall, but most have closed.
- Europe's most southerly ski area, Sierra Nevada, staying open to May 4th.
- Up to 10cm of snowfall reported in New Zealand with the 2025 season start 2 months away.
Snow forecasts worldwide.
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World Overview
Springtime continues to gain ground across northern hemisphere ski slopes. Temperatures and the freezing point have been climbing, widely to around 3,000m or above in the warmest parts of the day. As a result, the snowline is getting ever higher and for some areas even overnight freeze-thaw can't be relied on some days.
About 80% of northern hemisphere ski areas are now closed, but for the world's 200 biggest, well-known resorts that percentage is much lower. A few big names did end their seasons at the weekend, but most will continue to this Sunday, or Easter and many through to the start of May, some beyond.
Those looking for winter weather this week would have found it in the Rockies and Pyrenees before the weekend and in Eastern Europe over the weekend. Since then it's been Western Canada and Northern Scandinavia that have been posting the most fresh snowfall.
In the wider world there was a good snowfall in New Zealand with 10cm reported on ski slopes raising anticipation for the 2025 season that's due to start there in June.
Europe
Austria
Almost all Austrian ski resorts have seen a week of sunny skies, with valley temperatures reaching +20C at 1,000m altitudes in the afternoons and only just reaching freezing on higher slopes at night. Similar conditions are forecast to continue into next week.
About 20% of the country's larger, higher ski areas remain open, but many will close this Sunday, although about 50 should make it to Easter Sunday.
The Arlberg region above St Anton and Lech as well as Ischgl, linked over the border to Switzerland's Samnaun and staying open into May, both say they have over 200km of slopes still open.
France
French ski areas have seen a very warm, sunny week too. There's certainly no sign of the big April snowfalls of the past few years on high slopes in the country, not yet at least.
Here too afternoon temperatures have been reaching the high teens in valleys and overnight lows on high slopes are only getting a degree or two below freezing.
Snow depths (unlike this time in recent years) are dropping but the country's giant ski areas still have the majority of their terrain open. The 3 valleys lead the way with 500km of runs open still. Tignes/Val d'Isère still report 95% of their slopes open.
Italy
With Italy's ski slopes typically a little further south and a little lower altitude than those of France, it's no surprise that about 70% of the country's ski runs have now closed compared to 55% in France.
Closures last weekend included some big-name resorts like Alta Badia, Bormio and Val Gardena.
There was some snowfall in the Northwest of the region at the end of last week, with the Aosta Valley among areas seeing 10-20 cm accumulations, but since then it has been the same sunny warm weather here as elsewhere in central Europe and that's expected to continue into next week.
Cervinia-Zermatt and the Milky Way region incorporating Sauze d'Oulx and Sestriere both still report over 200km of slopes open.
Switzerland
Switzerland also enjoyed lovely sunny weather this week and that's expected to continue into the weekend here too, although are signs of cooler temperatures and snow/sleet/rain early next week.
The warm temperatures have of course accelerated the spring melt, with valley highs climbing up towards +20C, however, overnight lows continue to dip below freezing above 2,000m altitudes giving good morning skiing conditions up high.
A few dozen Swiss centres remain open, most with 30-60% of their terrain still open. However, some, including Saas Fee, which is posted the country's deepest snow at 2.8m, Zermatt, Sanmaun and a few others are still at 80-95% open.
Scandinavia
Ski areas in the Arctic Circle in northern Scandinavia have again been posting some of the best snowfalls in Europe this week.
Northern Norway's Narvik reported 25cm of fresh snowfall to start the week, and is open every day into the first week of May.
Elsewhere in the region, there have been lighter snowfalls with temperatures moving a few degrees on either side of freezing from freeze-thaw conditions. It's generally much colder and has better snow quality than all but the highest slopes in the Alps.
Most of Scandinavia's larger centres remain 80-95% open until the Easter weekend or the start of May.
Pyrenees
About a dozen ski areas remain open in the Pyrenees and most of these plan to remain so through to the Easter weekend, in some cases staying open longer than expected into April thanks to the region seeing its best month of the 24-25 season in March.
That continued into the start of April, with more snowfall reported into last weekend after the Alps had returned to sunshine.
It has been warm and sunny in the Pyrenees too since Monday but there are signs of a change over the next few days with colder temperatures and snowfall on high slopes expected.
The Grandvalira region (Pas de la Casa, Soldeu and others) reports its slopes remain 75% open.
Scotland
Scotland's season appears more or less over with Cairngorm no longer maintaining their snow and warm mountain temperatures touching +20C in the Highlands this week melting much of the limited hill snow that remained. It is due to turn cooler and more unsettled but big changes would be needed for adequate natural snowfall to return or it being worth restarting all-weather snowmaking at this stage.
Eastern Europe
Only a few ski areas are still operating in Eastern Europe, but one of them, Bulgaria's Bansko did get some fresh snowfall at the weekend for its final week of the season.
Elsewhere another of the still-open few, Slovakia's Jasna, reported fresh snowfall on Sunday with the wider region receiving up to 25cm of snowfall on Monday.
North America
Canada
Western Canada has had a mixed week for weather with more cold, snowy days, but also some warm, spring weather.
Some of the country's leading resorts ended their seasons last Sunday (including Big White and Red Mountain) with many of the rest joining them next weekend.
The three Banff centres, Marmot Basin near Jasper and Whistler Blackcomb all plan to stay open into May. The slopes at the latter remain about 90% open with over 8,000 acres still skiable, the best conditions up high and in the morning though.
A dry end to the week in most areas but with rain, sleet and snowfall expected at the weekend.
USA
Many of America's big-name ski areas have begun ending their seasons, even with the snow still falling.
Taos, Keystone and Telluride were amongst those shutting down for 24-25 at the weekend, with many more set to follow this coming Sunday.
At the same time resorts including Arapahoe Basin and even the southerly Arizona Snowbowl, had posted half-a-metre of April snowfall over the previous 72 hours. Those were among the bigger accumulations of the past seven days with more springlike conditions dominating since.
Sunny conditions are expected to continue through the weekend in many areas with temperatures getting well above freezing at all levels, as high as +20C (68F) in the valleys.
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