J2Ski Snow Report - July 24th 2025
J2Ski Snow Report - July 24th 2025
Published : 24-Jul-2025 09:01
Hotham, Australia, keeps delivering...
Saas-Fee has opened for summer skiing as Tignes closes, while southern hemisphere resorts—especially Mount Hutt—see growing terrain and base depths despite limited snowfall, with most areas now near full operation except parts of Argentina and New Zealand's North Island.
The Snow Headlines - July 24th
- Saas-Fee open for 2025 summer ski season: which will morph into its 25-26 ski season.
- Mount Hutt posting deepest base in southern hemisphere, now more than 5 feet deep up top.
- Tignes ends 2025 summer ski season, no areas now open in France until November.
- Snowfall returns to Aussie slopes, but strong winds close lifts at times too.
- America's Timberline enters its ninth and final month of season which began in Nov 2024.
See where the snow is forecast.
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World Overview
There are no huge snowfalls to report this week, in fact it's been more of a sunny one across the southern hemisphere, but there have been some fresh falls for Australia, New Zealand and the Andes, even a few flakes in southern Africa.
The main change from seven days ago, though, is more terrain opening, with most ski areas in Australia, Chile and on New Zealand's South Island nearing full operations. The regions still lagging behind with below-average cover are Argentina and New Zealand's North Island.
In the northern hemisphere, there are six centres open, although we did briefly hit seven at the weekend with Saas Fee opening for summer skiing and its 25-26 season before Tignes closed its summer 2025 run on Sunday afternoon.
Southern Hemisphere
Australia
Australian ski resorts enjoyed another strong week, boosted by fresh snowfall that's deepened base depths and expanded terrain openings.
Hotham has posted 15cm in the last 36 hours and there's much more in the forecast for the coming weekend.
The only issue has been strong winds driving in the wintry weather leading to some lift closures earlier in the week, shutting down entire ski areas at the worst of it on Tuesday.
Several areas are approaching one-metre depths and near-full operations: Falls Creek has already reached 100% on the latter measure.
It was sunny through the weekend after snowfall last week, but the snow has returned over the past few days, and the outlook is for more unsettled conditions. Temperatures have swung considerably from -10°C overnight lows to mild daytime highs at lower elevations. Snow is falling again as we publish.
Perisher leads in terms of open terrain with 48km (30 miles) of runs open, roughly three-quarters of its maximum extent, and reports excellent conditions. Thredbo holds the deepest base (the only one already past the 1m mark) and has 70% of its terrain running, with Mount Hotham close behind.
New Zealand
After some weekend snowfalls, it's been a largely dry week in New Zealand with plenty of sunshine on the slopes and temperatures in the -2 to +8 °C range. The snowfall allowed some of the club fields like Stratford Mountain Club's Manganui Ski Area to reopen, but others like Broken River say that although they had some snowfall, they need more in order to be able to open.
The snowfall improved things on the North Island, where Turoa and Whakapapa ski areas on Mount Ruapehu had been struggling to open much to date due to thin cover. It's still very limited, but both did manage to open more terrain.
Things are much better on the South Island, where everywhere is 80-95% open, led by Mount Hutt, which has more than 1.5m of snow lying up top, the deepest in the southern hemisphere right now.
After the sunny week, more snowfall is expected at the weekend.
Argentina
Argentina's ski season is showing signs of life after recent snowfalls brought up to 50cm of fresh snow this week.
While daytime temperatures have crept into high single digits, overnight lows have dropped to -11°C, some nights and passing storm fronts have helped.
Southerly Cerro Castor is posting the most terrain open and deepest snowpack in the country at about 60% and 80cm, respectively. Las Leñas has reached 40% open, but the continent's largest resort, Cerro Catedral, remains very limited at 10%, though conditions are improving here too.
Chile
Chile has seen a week of sunny spells mixed with cloudy periods, there's been a big variation in precipitation though with ski areas at more southerly latitudes getting more than half a metre more of the white stuff, but those further north just the odd centimetre or so.
Most of the country's bigger resorts, including Portillo, La Parva and Valle Nevado, are near or at full operations, which beats ski areas in most other countries worldwide right now.
Some of the smaller centres like Corralco are only 40-60% open.
Temperatures have been getting cold overnight, as low as -10C, and are expected to get even colder over the next few days, with afternoon highs only a little above freezing at base levels. Sunshine for most at the weekend.
Lesotho
Lesotho's Afriski - believed to be the only remaining active ski resort in Africa - has now passed the halfway mark of its 2025 season, and its main slope is fully open from summit to base.
The past week has been typically dry and sunny, with temperatures hovering between -5°C and +7°C; however, there was some light snowfall to start the week, which should add a wintery touch ahead of the resort's 25th anniversary celebrations set for this weekend. Current snow depths are reported at 15 to 30cm (6-12").
Northern Hemisphere
The Alps
The freezing level has hovered between 3,000–4,100m high in the Alps this week, with glacier temps dipping as low as -2°C overnight (though sometimes staying a few degrees above freezing) and reaching +10°C by afternoon.
Five ski areas were open over the weekend, including Saas Fee, which joined nearby Zermatt/Cervinia (Matterhorn Glacier Paradise) to kick off its 2025 summer ski season.
Tignes, the last French area still operating, closed on Sunday, so there's now no French resorts expected to offer snowsports until Val Thorens reopens in November.
Austria's Hintertux currently offers Europe's most terrain at 16km, though that's down by over a third from a week or two back. Passo Stelvio has around 60% of its slopes open.
Despite the sunshine, occasional showers have popped up over the glaciers, and although they've been mostly rain, it is expected to get more wintry up high.
Scandinavia
Norway's Galdhøpiggen glacier remains operational despite a difficult week marked by persistent rain showers and daytime temperatures reaching +15°C. Snow depths currently stand at 10/80cm, with the centre describing conditions as "springlike," and around 70% of the terrain remains open for morning skiing.
Sunshine and showers are continuing into the weekend, but with cooler temperatures.
USA
Idaho's Timberline is still open - North America's only open outdoor ski area with lift-accessed runs - heading into the final month of its nine-month season, which began in autumn last year, the continent's longest.
Despite warm afternoons and shrinking snowpack, overnight flurries kept the slopes alive, and the snow depth sits at about 50cm. Alternatives include New Jersey's indoor Big Snow and Copper Mountain's hike-up terrain park in Colorado, open weekends to the public.
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