Snow Conditions

The winter skiing season ends on May 5th and the conditions are optimal, it snowed 60-80cm over the last two days, then the skies cleared for the weekend yesterday and we enjoyed yet more powder skiing. The Sunnegga and Gornergrat sectors closed last weekend, however the Matterhorn Paradise area and Cervinia remain open until the beginning of May. Then we switch to summer skiing: Zermatt is the only resort in the world where you can ski 365 days per year.

As predicted, after the huge snowfall the weather cleared and the second weekend of April had two glorious sunny days. And the powder snow was the lightest and fluffiest of the year! In fact, typical April conditions in Zermatt. The pistes have really good snow depth and conditions are now still wintery and grippy on all the higher runs, while the lower ones have glorious spring corn around mid-day. Perfect for the coming late Easter weekend.

After two weeks of glorious sunshine, we now have a double weather system bringing us a huge amount of snow from both the north and the south. It has snowed a total of 105cm on the Plateau Rosa and 45cm at Gornergrat. And it is still snowing! The weather forecast for tomorrow Friday and the weekend is for sunshine and blue skies, so we are looking forward to what promises to be the best weekend of the season!

After the stable high pressure of February, the first week of March saw a more westerly weather system with snow every third day or so. Perfect for powder skiing!

It snowed a total of 50cm during the first two weeks at the Plateau Rosa, before culminating with a huge snowfall of 80cm on March 15th! There was a good deal of wind at altitude, which means that the off-piste was quite difficult to ski, however the base of snow is so deep that the skiing will be fantastic all the way to May. And all the pistes are currently in wonderful condition.

We have had a stable anticylonic high-pressure weather system for almost all of the February school holidays, with glorious sunny skies and mild temperatures. Perfect weather for enjoying the mountain restaurant terraces, a glass of rosé wine to hand, and watching the kids ski.

If you are on the Rothorn sector, the wonderful red Kumme run (N°14) is great and relatively quiet, while around Gornergrat the White Hare red from Hohtalli to Gant (N° 28) is beautiful. Also here the yellow Mittelritz (N° 30) is superb with soft snow and small moguls. On Schwarzsee, the Momatt yellow (run N° 60) is great with soft snow, but big and steep moguls in the middle part. N° 67 (Garten Buckelpiste) has much softer snow than the main Garten run down to Furgg.

After a week of sunny skies, a fresh snowfall of 25cm yesterday has topped up all the pistes nicely.

It snowed a lot on the first two day of February, and the pistes have great powdery / grippy snow everywhere.

The Hohtalli – Rote Nase cable-car has opened for season, giving access to the Triftji / Stockhorn freeride area. The Paradise yellow (i.e. double-black) bump run (N°10) is a delight. Also the wonderful red Kumme (N°14) is great, if you are on the Rothorn sector, as is the Arbzug yellow (N° 18) it leads to. The White Hare red from Hohtalli to Gant (N° 28) is beautiful.

It has snowed all over the Alps, but whereas the quantities were unmanageable in some parts of Austria, here in Zermatt we had a perfect 60cm which has refreshed all the slopes nicely. The Cervinia side had a lot of wind last week so there is no off-piste there, but on the Swiss side the conditions both on and off-piste are currently perfect. The snow is powdery all the way down to resort level.

The weather was unseasonably mild up to Christmas, but with good precipitation. It snowed several times up to Christmas day, and since then we have had perfect clear skies and sun. The snow from 3,800m to 2,300m is squeaky cold powder on piste, and c. 30cm deep powder off piste. Below that it is hard-pack with the help of snow cannons. All resort runs are open.  And the miracle of Zermatt is that if you know where to look, you can still find fresh powder tracks 5 days later:

For the video click here.

Conditions continue to be perfect, with 50cm of new snow over the last week, and more runs opening, giving us still more open runs than anywhere else in the world. It’s not too late to make a quick trip here just before or for a white Christmas day. Today we skied down to Valtournenche which you can see on the right hand photo, enjoyed pristine untracked snow, and a superb lunch at the Foyer des Guides restaurant. Try the Gattinara Riserva wine!