In the Alps, snow ignores the calendar
December 21, 2006
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KITZBHEL, Austria: How balmy has it been in the Alps these last few months? At the bottom of the Hahnenkamm, the famously treacherous downhill course in this ski resort, the slope peters out into a grassy field. And it's just 10 days before Christmas.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/12/15/news/austria.php?page=1
Yup, especially since I was supposed to be skiing St. Anton next week. Looks like that probably won't happen now.
I guess this is not the winter to gamble buying airfare weeks in advance, unless it's to the western US areas. Then again, that could change too.
Not likely. Park City just doubled it's snow base (from a measely 20 inches to a low but respectable 40 inches), and a 2 foot blizzard is about to strike the Sangre de Cristo. Weather pattern is trending away from BC for the next week at least, with several moderate snowfall events in the forecast for UT, CO, CA, and even NM.
I think it'll be a below normal snow year for the Central Rockies, but not bad overall. One or two more big storms and PC will be it's usual white gold self by mid January!
Oh, and anyone check out Wolf Creek in CO? 155 inches of snow to-date with a 54 inch base. Except for Loveland, probably the deepest snow outside the Pac NW.
Quote:
I guess this is not the winter to gamble buying airfare weeks in advance, unless it's to the western US areas. Then again, that could change too.
Definitely not, although I've found tickets to Europe for as little as $365 RT including all taxes, fees, etc, for February. In the past 5 winters or so, parts of the Alps have received good late season snow (March-April) but booking now for the hope of late season snow is too much of a crap shoot for me. Heck, most Europeans are booking flights to the US, and with the low dollar, colorado is more attractive than ever for them.
But it ends with Pushkin! You don't see that often in a newspaper article.
Wow. the washington post article is scary. 1 degree rise in global temps will kill 166 ski resorts.
