Where to Ski And Snowboard -

Snow snippets: 5 May

5th May 2010, by Chris Gill

Break in the clouds. Doesn't it look lovely!

Just when you thought it was all over ... but you’ll need to be quick to catch it.

The handful of major resorts still open for skiing and boarding are due to close 9 May, with Engelberg (not an official ‘summer ski’ resort) holding out until 24 May. So, it’s last turns at Cervinia, Val Thorens, Chamonix and Tignes (though it will be back for summer skiing). Still, as we wrote in a previous update, they are finishing on a snowy note.

But as we have reported in our news item, it has been snowing heavily in the Swiss mountains this week. Not just a dusting either, but a chilly snap that has delivered several centimetres of snow to 2000m or just below in Zermatt, 20cm to Saas Fee and a decent covering to Engelberg’s mid-mountain area at Stand (2430m) – which still reports a settled snow depth of 90cm. What’s more, you would have needed to wrap up in winter garments on the Kleine Matterhorn slopes today: it was minus 12 degrees!

The first week of May has also been unusually chilly in Austria too, where snow showers and fog has made it pretty miserable up on the high slopes recently. If you saw the pictures of Ischgl last weekend, it certainly did not look very spring-like up at Idalp. The good news is that is has brought a fresh covering of snow to resorts such as Sölden, Stubai and Hintertux – still open for business. And the snow showers are set to hang around until the weekend at least, though less frequent in Austria than in Switzerland.

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