Heavy Snow In The Alps
Heavy Snow In The Alps
Published : 04-Sep-2012 12:43
Autumn, let alone winter, may still be several weeks away, but there have been large snowfalls on mountain tops in the Alps in recent days.
This has raised excitement levels in resorts like Verbier, but has actually brought powder skiing and snowboarding conditions in the first week of September to the half-dozen resorts that are currently open for glacier skiing in the Alps.
The Hintertux glacier, which, along with Zermatt, is one of just two ski areas that still endeavours to stay open 365 days a year, reported 40cm of fresh snow.
That's particularly good news as a hot summer had thinned the snow cover to less than a foot here, as on most European glaciers, that base is now back up to 60cm (two feet) with the new snow.
Zermatt's neighbour, Saas Fee, which opened mid-July and will stay open right through to May 2013, reported the biggest snowfall withy 45cm (18 inches) of new snow.
Although the year-round operation of those resorts mentioned and the seasonal spring, summer and autumn opening of others makes it difficult to say now when one ski season ends and the next begins, September does see the end of summer skiing at most summer ski areas that didn't already close and temperatures usually begin to tumble through the last few weeks of summer.
The Stubai, Pitztal and other Austrian as well as Swiss and Italain resorts and Tignes in France begin opening from mid-September to mid-October signifying, by one measure at least, the start of 2012-13 ski season, or at least the preamble!
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