Zermatt - 2/13-2/18/2017

February 13 to February 18, 2017

Zermatt

Powder, packed powder, hard packed

Trip Report:

Switzerland had been having a horrendous snow year until late January. Zermatt received a 3-4' dump in early November then literally had no snow for the next two months. Lots of cold weather in December allowed snowmaking on all of the pistes though. Glaciers up high and another 3-4' at the end of January really cleaned things up, otherwise skiing visually would have been bad below 7,000'. Thankfully, there is 5,000 vertical feet of skiing above 7,000'.

Pistes skied really well before noon. Every open trail is groomed every night in Zermatt. After lunch (two hours of drinking and staring at alpine peaks) it was very hard packed, which generally meant a few runs on the glacier then more beers in the sun.

I passed on the off-piste guided skiing this year, since there was little powder, and opted for a guided climb of the Breithorn (4,000m peak). You've all seen pictures of the Matterhorn so here is the short movie I made for this year's trip to Zermatt.



Anybody know how to get my Vimeo video to post in this thread properly?

Cool video! Do they just grown a path through open spaces?

Sent from my SM-G930P using AlpineZone mobile app

dlague said:

Cool video! Do they just grown a path through open spaces?

Sent from my SM-G930P using AlpineZone mobile app

Click to expand...

Pistes are pretty much in the same place every year. Maybe open to a little interpretation in the fall when they get laid down, but all line up with what is on the map. On the glacier they have to stay in the same spot since they spend all summer plowing snow into the crevasses. On some of the trails you can look over 50' and there is a huge crevasse. Beyond the rope line they will dig a small trench with the snowcat to keep you from sliding off trail into the crevasse. Thankfully, I have never tested the ditch system.