Snow Conditions

The summer ski slopes are situated between the Matterhorn Glacier Paradise (Klein Matterhorn) and Trockener Steg, with a total vertical just shy of 1,000m.

Mountain Exposure founder Donald Scott making the most of a summer day

The month of April has been as fantastic as is always the case in Zermatt. Frequent April showers at night have brought us repeated fresh snow almost every other day. The temperatures remained cool which kept the snow in good conditions, and we have been skiing powder tracks in the sunshine almost every day since the beginning of the month.

We have had an exceptional winter so far, with an above average amount of snow. Indeed, over the last 3 weeks we have skied fresh tracks off-piste for a total of 17 days – until my knees said stop! The snow base is so good that the skiing will remain excellent all the way to the beginning of May, when the winter ski lifts will close. However, the summer skiing begins on May 3d: Zermatt is the only resort in the world where you can ski all year round.

We had the best powder day of the season last Monday, it was better than heliskiing! The much deeper than average snow depth has enabled Zermatt to open all its runs and practically all of the fabled yellow itineraries – marked and secured runs which are not groomed. One of the greatest is Mittelritz (N° ) from Hohtälli to Gant. 1,000 vertical metres of soft bumps.

Many more mountain restaurants have now opened for take-aways on their terrace: Zum See, Blatten, Vrony’s, Fluhalp and the Findlerhof to name some of the top gourmet ones.

Cervinia will remain closed until March 5th, however with fine lunching and great skiing on the Zermatt side we’re not missing it that much. And we have the great good fortune that our lifts are allowed to operate. Carpe Skiem!

It snowed non-stop for three full days last week, and then the weather cleared on Sunday to give us one of the finest powder skiing days ever. The total amount that fell was 150cm, on top of an already good base. There is 180% more snow in Zermatt than the long term average level.

The resort has been busy preparing new runs. The wonderful Kumme run from Rothorn down to Tuftern is now open, as is the black Upper National run. On the Schwarzee side the super easy Aroleid blue is now also open. A very nice 30cm of fresh snow fell on the Furggsattel bowl (3,400-2,400m altitude) giving us great powder skiing. The weather is crisp and wonderfully sunny, while fresh snow is expected this coming mid-week.

The wonderful new Kumme lift was inaugurated just before Christmas, located in the Sunnegga / Rothorn sector, this 10 seater cabin lift has a vertical of 966m and a total length of 3.2 km. It starts near the bottom of the Tuftern run and goes all the way up to Rothorn, giving more efficient and more direct access to a number of ski slopes in this area.

It snowed 20cm yesterday, the skies cleared and we had some great powder runs. Piste conditions are excellent on the majority of slopes, however due to the temperatures being colder than usual, the lower slopes are hard with some ice patches. Nonetheless, now that the holiday crowds have gone, the skiing is wonderful.

All three mountain areas are open: Matterhorn Paradise, Gornergrat and Sunnegga. The snow on-piste is perfect crisp grippy powdery winter snow, temperatures are relatively mild and the sun is shining. The image below is taken from the Riffelberg webcam live feed on 16.12.2020

The summer ski area on the glacier at the top of the Matterhorn Express is open every day, as is the link to Italy (for skiers only). Skiing is open from 08:00 to 13:00, the last ascent for skiers from the village is at 11:20 (12:20 from August 20th onward).

In summer the snow conditions are similar to spring skiing, which means hard slopes early in the morning and slush in the afternoon. Between 10:00 and 12:00 the snow is lovely delicious spring corn. The views from the pistes are amazing, you can of course see the Matterhorn, but also the Mont-Blanc (the highest mountain in the Alps) and all the way to the Monte Viso above Turin.

After two days of continuous snowfall, we have amazing amounts of fresh snow, with 70cm on the Plateau Rosa and 30cm lower down.