Magnificent Late-Season Conditions in the Alps | Welove2ski
Snow Report

Magnificent Late-Season Conditions in the Alps

Is it May, or March?

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.

Magnificent Late-Season Conditions in the Alps | Welove2ski
Photo: yseski.co.uk

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.

Magnificent Late-Season Conditions in the Alps | Welove2ski
Photo: Ischgl/Facebook

And this was Obergurgl on Sunday.

Magnificent Late-Season Conditions in the Alps | Welove2ski
Photo: Obergurgl/Facebook

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.

Magnificent Late-Season Conditions in the Alps | Welove2ski
Photo: yseski.co.uk

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.

Magnificent Late-Season Conditions in the Alps | Welove2ski
Hintertux Glacier/Facebook

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

Magnificent Late-Season Conditions in the Alps | Welove2ski
Photo: Hintertux Glacier/Facebook

What an extraordinary end to spring…

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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