bloobyrd.com

written by Peter Kray / SkiPressWorld.com
Wednesday, 06 May 2009 09:14

Snowy Southern Hemisphere (Ski Press) – Skiinfo.com reports that as the long 2008-9 ski season finally winds down in the northern hemisphere, heavy snow in both Australia and New Zealand has led to

the southern hemisphere’s ski season beginning five weeks early last weekend. Meanwhile there are still dozens of ski areas open in North America and in Europe, where the summer ski season is just starting off for 2009.

In the Alps several dozen major resorts called it a day for winter 2008-09 last weekend as May began, many reporting record or near record snow accumulations and better financial results than predicted by a pessimistic media, the largest resort owning business on the continent, the Compagnie des Alpes, amongst those announcing a 2% increase in sales for the season this week.

Two resorts are left open in France, but both Chamonix and Tignes will close for the winter this weekend on Sunday May 10th. Then there’s a month’s wait until the country’s three summer ski options – Tignes, Val d’Isere and Les 2 Alpes open. In the meantime the only snow skiing in France will be indoors, at the Amneville indoor slope.

Most of the conventional Austrian ski areas which had remained open in to May finally closed at the weekend, with St Christoph and Ischgl amongst those running their lifts for the last time this winter last Sunday…

SNOW REPORT – WHO IS STILL SKIING, AND WHO IS READY TO START (SKIPRESSWORLD.COM)