From December to Late May: Following the Best Snow, Month by Month
- Boris Malesset
- Jul 10
- 6 min read
Ask when to ski the far north and the honest answer is a season, not a fortnight: from December right through to late May, and above the Arctic Circle into June. The snow moves. It settles first on the dry, cold heart of the continent in December, deepens over Japan and the Alps at midwinter, then follows the light north until it is still skiable off the deck of a boat under the midnight sun. So the best time to ski depends less on the calendar than on the kind of snow you're after. Here is the year, month by month, and where each one sends us.
December belongs to the continent
The season opens a long way east. In the Kazakh Altai, above the mining town of Ridder, the first real snows arrive dry and cold — continental powder, nothing like the heavy maritime stuff that comes later to the coasts. There are no lifts out here. A snowcat grinds you up through the larch and birch at first light, and you ski back down into the trees with the tracks filling in behind you.
It is quiet, and it is properly cold. Face shots in featherweight snow, then a diesel-warm cabin at the bottom to do it again. December is early enough that the cover is still building, so you read the ground and pick your lines with that in mind — but when it comes in, the snow here is about as light as powder gets. Our week of cat-skiing in the Kazakh Altai runs from December, from €5,950.
January and February, the lightest snow of the year
By deep winter the storms have swung to the coasts, and one island takes more of them than anywhere else. On Hokkaido, the systems track in off the Sea of Japan and unload dry, endless snow on the spine of mountains from Niseko across to Furano — the lightest, most reliable powder of the year, and January is its heart. We ski it as a safari, moving massif to massif to stay under whichever cloud is dumping.
Some days you're skiing through it more than on it. That is the trade-off with maritime powder this deep: brilliant tree skiing, flat light up high, and a genuine need to keep reading the snow as it loads. It rewards patience and a good nose for aspect. Our Hokkaido ski safari runs January and February, from €3,950.
Midwinter is also when the Alps come good, and Val-d'Isère is home for us — the school, the base, the terrain we know best. The off-piste there is skiable, with a mountain professional, right across the season from December to early May, which makes it the easy answer when you want a long weekend on snow without crossing a continent for it. A guided off-piste week in Val-d'Isère starts from €675.
March and April: the Arctic spring, and the best window in the north
If there is one stretch of the year to build a trip around, it is now. As the light comes back to the high latitudes and the snowpack settles, the whole Arctic opens up — long days, a raking low sun, and a mountain snowpack that has usually done its best work by early April.
Iceland is where we put most of that spring. On the Tröllaskagi peninsula, north of Akureyri, we run heli-assisted ski touring — and the distinction matters. This is not heliskiing. A helicopter lifts you to a summit ridge once, to save the long approach, and from there you earn the rest of the day on skins, skinning and skiing lines that fall the whole way from the tops down to the fjord. Corn snow softening in the sun, the sea below you, nobody else on the hill. Early April tends to be the sweet spot. The full week of heli-assisted ski touring in Iceland runs March and April, from €7,500 — and if you want the ground-level detail, we've written up the Troll Peninsula week, from summit to ocean.
The same window suits the Norwegian coast. In Lofoten, the mountains rise straight out of the water — proper ski touring, skinning from a shoreline car park to a summit and skiing back to it, from €3,500. And a little further north, out of Bodø, we ski off a boat: a sailing yacht drops you at the foot of a peak, you climb on skins, and you ski back down to the waterline. Our ski-and-sail week around Bodø runs from February into mid-May, best in March and April, from €4,450.
Into May, and the midnight sun
Spring doesn't end the season up here — it moves it out to sea. As the harbours clear of ice, the boats can reach coasts that were shut all winter.
In Greenland, that means the Eternity Fjord, north from Maniitsoq, once the drift ice lets a boat through: an ice-strengthened base afloat, walls that fall straight to black water, and descents that finish in the pack. It is a genuine expedition, run April into May with dates on request; our ski-and-sail expedition to Greenland starts from €8,500.
Then, at the very end, Svalbard. One departure a season, in late May, above the 78th parallel, with the sun no longer setting. You ski off a sailing yacht onto glaciers that pour into the Arctic Ocean, and you can start a climb at midnight because there is no dark to stop you. This is the sharpest thing we run — a real Arctic ski-and-sail expedition to Svalbard, from €9,500.
Read the snow, not just the calendar
A month points you at a kind of snow. It does not hand it to you. The date on your booking is a good bet, never a guarantee — the snowpack, the weather that week, the level in the group and the judgement on the day are what actually decide where you ski, and whether you ski a given line at all.
So we plan around the snow. Every morning starts with the forecast and the bulletin, wherever we are: the Scottish Avalanche Information Service sets the standard for how a daily snowpack forecast should read, and it's the same discipline we bring to the mountains we ski — the Icelandic Met Office for Tröllaskagi, and Norway's avalanche forecasting service, Varsom for the coast and the fjords. We ski what the snowpack gives, we move the plan when the light or the loading is wrong, and some days we turn back. None of that is failure — it is the job.
It also means being honest about level. These are off-piste and ski-touring trips, not resort weeks; if you're weighing whether you're ready, read our straight answer on how good a skier you actually need to be, or just tell us where you ski now.
The year at a glance
December · Kazakh Altai, Ridder (cat-skiing) — dry continental powder, the season's first cold snow
January–February · Hokkaido, Japan (ski safari) plus the Alps at Val-d'Isère — the lightest, deepest snow of the year
March–April · Iceland (heli-assisted ski touring), Lofoten (ski touring) and Bodø (ski and sail) — the Arctic spring, the best all-round window
April–May · Greenland, the Eternity Fjord (ski and sail) — the sea route opens as the ice clears
Late May · Svalbard, above the 78th parallel (ski and sail) — one departure, the midnight sun
Common questions
When should you go for the best powder?
December to February. Dry continental powder in the Kazakh Altai in December, then the lightest, deepest, most reliable snow of the year over Hokkaido through January and February.
What's the best month to ski in Iceland?
Late March into April, with the snowpack often at its best in early April. On the Tröllaskagi peninsula we run heli-assisted ski touring — one helicopter drop, then skins — with corn snow and a low, raking spring light.
Can you still ski in May and June?
Yes — spring moves the skiing out to sea. Greenland's Eternity Fjord runs April into May once the harbour clears of ice, and a single Svalbard departure in late May puts you above the 78th parallel under the midnight sun, where the season stretches towards June.
Does booking a date guarantee the snow?
No. A month points you at the right kind of snow; it never promises it. We read the avalanche forecast every morning, ski what the snowpack gives, and change the plan — or turn back — when it doesn't.
Boris Malesset, founder of PowderWeGo, off-piste professional since 2001. "Choosing a month is really choosing a kind of snow. Tell me you want cold, dry powder and I'll point you at December in the Altai; tell me you want long spring days off a boat and it's May in the north. What I won't do is promise you a given face on a given day — the snow decides that, and half the job is knowing when to change the plan."
Plan your year on snow → See where each month could take you across our full range of adventure ski trips, or tell us how and where you ski and we'll match you a month. If it's the Arctic spring you're after, our week of heli-assisted ski touring in Iceland sits right in that late-March-to-April window.
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