Swiss Snow Highs And Lows

Wild fluctuations in snow cover at Swiss resorts is currently being reported as some areas are being seriously dumped on, while other report cover from the big snowstorms of the past three weeks has thawed away.

Saas Fee is making the most excited claims, saying that they have had 1.5m (five feet) of fresh snow in the last few days.

But Crans Montana, which was due to open this weekend, has postponed doing so as its snow accumulation has been badly diminished by thawing, even 3000m up, and the resort has taken the unusually honest step (for ski resort snow reporting in general) of posting images showing that fact on social media, including the one above. It's not known for sure if the slopes are white again now.

Davos and Engelberg are reported to have opened/re-opened for the season OK this weekend, joining already open Andermatt, Glacier 3000 above Les Diablerets, the Diavolezza glacier near St Moritz and Zermatt.

Verbier, which is currently aiming to open at weekends after opening early last weekend following heavy snow, reported yesterday that rain in resort had turned to snow and that today was expected to be a powder Sunday.

Andermatt has reported 20cm of fresh snow in the last 24 hours and Glacier 3000 a similar accumulation in recent days.

No need to panic. Best seasons that I had slopes were still mostly brown in the beginning of December. Worst seasons - they were all white by mid-November.

That's absolutely right, VSB, and with good reason.

A main key issue is the ground temperature on the mountain. The top two ft of ground needs to lose it's summer temperature, and deplete to a winter level. At this time of year, it matters not so much that there may still be sunny days, the angle of the sun is slanted to the ground, particularly on North facing slopes.

However, sunny days means cold, starry, frosty nights. A month of this allows the frost to go deep into the ground.

On the other hand, an early blanket of snow provides insulation against the normal effects of frosty nights, ie the ground cannot leak a temperature gradation.

It can be worse than this, in that the warm ground melts a layer of adjacent snow, thereby creating an unstable slab ~ which can avalanche. Many of the worst avalanches have been at the start of the season.

Dave Mac wrote:That's absolutely right, VSB, and with good reason.

A main key issue is the ground temperature on the mountain. The top two ft of ground needs to lose it's summer temperature, and deplete to a winter level. At this time of year, it matters not so much that there may still be sunny days, the angle of the sun is slanted to the ground, particularly on North facing slopes.

However, sunny days means cold, starry, frosty nights. A month of this allows the frost to go deep into the ground.

On the other hand, an early blanket of snow provides insulation against the normal effects of frosty nights, ie the ground cannot leak a temperature gradation.

It can be worse than this, in that the warm ground melts a layer of adjacent snow, thereby creating an unstable slab ~ which can avalanche. Many of the worst avalanches have been at the start of the season.

Well said, Mr Mac

J2SkiNews wrote:
Saas Fee is making the most excited claims, saying that they have had 1.5m (five feet) of fresh snow in the last few days.

In all the years I've lived here I can't ever remember anyone from Saas Fee getting excited!

Some parts of the resort have had more than 1.5m

and other parts less


The snow depths above 2000m in upper Valais are very impressive for this time of year, especially when you take into account that this is one of the driest regions in the alps.

http://www.slf.ch/schneeinfo/messwerte/stationsdaten/rk42_sd_c_EN
The situation in lower Valais isn't so good, only about 50cm at Les Attelas above Verbier.
http://www.slf.ch/schneeinfo/messwerte/stationsdaten/rk82_sd_c_EN

The snow depths on the Italian side are also pretty impressive, this is today's trace from the weather station at Lago Goillet (2541m) above Valtournenche

The midday temperatures have come down a bit, last week they were at 7-8°C, hopefully it will now start to get colder.