A Snowy End to Easter in Austria | Welove2ski
Snow Report

A Snowy End to Easter in Austria and Switzerland

It should stay cold for most of next week, too.

The north-eastern Alps are expecting a chilly and snowy end to Easter, with more of the white stuff to come in the week that follows.

The weather is due to change on Saturday, when a cold front moves down from the north. To begin with, it will be snowing at altitude across the whole of the northern Alps. Thereafter, sunny and settled conditions will return to the French resorts, but it will stay wintry in the east.

Here’s the latest snow forecast for Easter Day.

A Snowy End to Easter in Austria | Welove2ski
The snow forecast for April 16.

And this is the forecast for April 17.

A Snowy End to Easter in Austria | Welove2ski
The April 17 snow map.

Mid-range forecasts suggest another cold front will hit the eastern Alps on Tuesday.

In other words, once the skies clear – and before it warms up again – there should be some lovely skiing on offer in the high-altitude Austrian resorts – such as Hintertux, the Stubai Glacier and Obergurgl. What’s more, with visitor numbers dropping sharply after Easter, the slopes will be more or less empty, too.

Here’s how the Hintertux looked earlier today – still in good shape, thanks to fresh snow last week.

A Snowy End to Easter in Austria | Welove2ski
Photo: Hintertux Glacier/Facebook

In the meantime, spring is keeping a firm grip on conditions across the region. The sun’s been out in many areas today, and the mountains have been looking magnificent: but the snow’s been slushy – especially in Austria, where it was overcast last night (which meant temperatures didn’t drop as low as normal, and only the highest slopes refroze).

As ever at this time of year, altitude is your best guarantee of good skiing: but even so you need to adopt spring-skiing tactics to get the best from the conditions.

Here’s how it was looking in Val d’Isere this afternoon. The resort still has 155cm of snow bedded down on its highest slopes.

A Snowy End to Easter in Austria | Welove2ski
Photo: valdisere.com

This was Obergurgl in Austria, earlier today where (courtesy of Crystal) my fellow editors Peter and Felice Hardy are skiing this week. Thanks to an overcast night last night, the snow was a bit sugary and wet this morning. But generally they’ve been enjoying good spring snow in the resort – firm first thing, and softening up during the course of the morning without getting too slushy.

A Snowy End to Easter in Austria | Welove2ski
Photo: welove2ski.com

Finally, here’s the view from the top of the Grands Montets lift above Chamonix. A potent reminder of why we all love the mountains so much…

A Snowy End to Easter in Austria | Welove2ski
Photo: montblancnaturalresort.com

About the author

Sean Newsom

As well as founding Welove2ski in June 2007, Sean has written about skiing and snowboarding in the British press for 28 years. For the last 20 of them, he’s also been the ski travel editor at The Sunday Times.

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  • Can confirm that the snow continues to be wonderful in Val d’Isère – with lots of lovely spring snow to be found … all lower slopes are still covered – if a little heavy as you would expect at the end of the day … a great end to our long season, Jane Griffiths, Galerie Jane Griffiths, Val d’Isère

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