September snow
Following the hottest, driest summer on record in Europe, including high up in the mountains, snow has fallen in September.
Val Thorens has had 3cm in the ski resort (2300m) and 8cm of snow fall on the summits (3200m)
The Innsbruck ski region – including Kühtai, Nordkette, Axamer Lizum and Patscherkofel-MeinHausberg – has seen some pretty serious September snowfall.
St Anton and Warth, among others in the Arlberg, have been coated in fresh snow.
Over in the Dolomites they’ve also seen surprisingly good September snow fall.
Chamonix has had a dusting, as have many ski areas across France, Switzerland, Italy and Germany.
It won’t last, of course, but at least it means that summer is over and the countdown is on…
Just one resort stayed open for skiing this summer. Hintertux Glacier is the only ski area that made it through the summer season without closing after heatwaves and low snow depth forced others to call it quits.
With some artificial help, Val Senales in Italy’s South Tyrol opened this weekend, though in very limited capacity. Perhaps this coverage and cooler weather will see Zermatt’s glacier reopen. Enough snow in Cervinia and Zermatt is hoped for to kick off the World Cup racing season in October, set to be the highest ever World Cup start line and the only cross-border World Cup.
It seems like winter made just a brief appearance this weekend in the Alps and Dolomites, and snow has stopped falling.
The first snow of autumn settled in Scotland’s Cairngorms last week, and snow has fallen in Canada’s British Columbia as well as in Colorado in the USA.
We’ll keep an eye on it here and update soon.