What a finale!

Last weekend (and Monday) saw the lifts close in a number of key high-altitude resorts, including Obergurgl and Ischgl in the Austrian Tirol, Cervinia in Italy, and Val d’Isere and Val Thorens in France. Thanks to the heavy snow last week, conditions were nothing short of spectacular for the final weekend.

Pictured below is Val d’Isere’s powder day on Saturday.

This was how it was in Val Thorens on the same day.

Pictured below was Ischgl on Saturday, when 18,200 were on the mountain to see Italian popster Zucchero play the season out.

And this was Obergurgl on Sunday.

Then, guess what? It started snowing again. John Yates-Smith of Val d’Isere specialist YSE took this photo of the last transfer bus of the season on Monday morning.

The snow here later spread right across the Alps, in another of those storms we wish had come in March, not late April or early May.
 

 
Of course, just because the mainstream season has all but finished, that doesn’t mean skiing is out of the question. Tignes in France is open until May 6, and the lifts will be running in a number of glacier resorts long after that – notably at Zermatt and Hintertux, which are both open year-round. Then, before we’ve had time to dry out ski socks out properly, the summer skiing season will be underway too.

Here’s how it was looking at Hintertux this morning, after another 30cm of snow last night.

This was on top of 93cm of snow last week.

What an extraordinary end to spring…