• Welcome to AlpineZone, the largest online community of skiers and snowboarders in the Northeast!

    You may have to REGISTER before you can post. Registering is FREE, gets rid of the majority of advertisements, and lets you participate in giveaways and other AlpineZone events!

Crazy weather in the Alps!

benski

Active member
Joined
Jun 18, 2014
Messages
1,114
Points
36
Location
Binghamton NY
I was just in Zermatt then Andermatt for Christmas and New Years. crazy. Zermatt was Icy and really windblown. The lower mountain trees where bottomless becouse I guess all the snow got blown there. I saw a slide in a gully that reviled there were feet of base there There was a lot of exposed rocks and grass, essentially anywhere exposed to the wind. This ruined almost every good run, since Zermatt has little protected terrain. Snowed the 28th but with the wind there was -inches to 2 feet of fresh depending on how the wind hit it. snowed the the 30th and then rained a little in the village so you had 1.5 feet with a shiny crust down low. I went to Andermatt the 30th and was able to avoid the crust easily. It was snowing hard when I left the morning of the 2nd. Still need to find time to post the trip report on NMS.
 

ironhippy

Member
Joined
May 16, 2014
Messages
408
Points
18
Location
NB Canda
Those videos are terrifying, I can't imagine being on that chair in those conditions or anywhere near that giant slide.
 

kingslug

Well-known member
Joined
Dec 30, 2005
Messages
6,990
Points
113
Location
Stamford Ct and Stowe
The chairs in Europe are freaky as sometimes its a multi thousand foot fall off the one side. Kitzsteinhorn is like that. Bubble chair. Spent 20 minutes swinging off that thing in a total whiteout. Something like this.

3907-chairlift.jpg
 
Top