Road crews in the Italian Alps are reported to be battling to open the famous Stelvio Pass road in Italy.
The crews want to get the road open in part so that skiers and boarders can reach the slopes above of Italy's only remaining summer ski area when it opens on the final weekend of May.
However equally important the famous Giro d'Italia race, which is being staged for the 100th time this season and is already underway is due to cross the pass a few days before the ski slopes open, during the last full week of May on its 16th stage.
The road crews are being kept busy by continuing heavy snowfall which has been ongoing for nearly a month and is due to keep falling at least to the coming weekend – good news for skiers and boarders if they can reach it, bad news for road crews and cyclists.
The road crews were captured by the Passo Stelvio webcam this morning as pictured above.
At nearly 2,800m Passo Stelvio marks the highest point on the Giro tour. It is open to skiers and boarders right through to November when the 2017-18 season gets started across Italy.