Weather forecast, driving on Swiss mountain roads, watch the icy slopes
Jura has had some fresh snow this week (photo: Shirley Curran)
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Expect traffic on the roads and on the trains: this weekend is the height of the school holiday period with families heading towards the slopes from cantons Geneva and Vaud as well as parts of France.
The snow cover might be thinner than winter sports fans like, but snowmaking machines and snow left from December are keeping the pistes white. And, cross your fingers, the weather people are telling us to expect snow down to about 1,000m Sunday, cooler temperatures Monday and the snow line falling to 600-800 m.
Better yet, all of this should be followed by clearer skies early in the week in Valais.
Switzerland received almost no new snow in the past week. What little fell landed mostly in the Jura, so it is one of the good places to go if you’re looking for snow Saturday.
We’re repeating a word of caution this week because there have been yet more injuries and a death linked to icy slopes. A 16-year-old from Neuchatel died 15 February, two weeks after she crashed going down a slope that had been closed, during a school ski trip. TSR has a good page, in French, with advice on safety and health tips including common sense pointers for those who love going off piste.
Canton Vaud police have offered a few tips on driving in the mountains to help the foreigners on the roads, which we’re sharing with you.
Weather forecast
It's the Jura this week! Snow .... (photo, Shirley Curran)
It’s true: snow is on the way! The forecast from MeteoSwiss for Sunday shows one big black cloud, with the snow line down to 1,000 metres for the first time in weeks, and falling to 800 or 600 by Monday as temperatures fall.
That said, the highs are expected to be 5-7C in western Switzerland, just a degree or two colder at altitude, but with luck the snow will last for the coming school holidays week.
Ski resorts report
Ski resorts update, weather forecast, snow sports competition
Blue skies, thinning but skiable snow above 1,800-2,000 metres
(video, Albrecht returns to the slopes) Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The best news for skiers is that the sun is shining in the Swiss Alps, but fresh snow and colder temperatures to keep the snow from melting would be very welcome. The situation in the Jura is a dramatic change from December, with few ski areas open at the moment. Ski conditions in Alpine resorts are decent above 2,000 metres, with hard snow, but take sunglasses and plan on just a t-shirt on the veranda during your break: this is more like February!
Ski resorts: the higher, the better
Jura report, from Shirley Curran
The condition of the slopes at Crozet/Lélex was surprisingly good this week but we had rain up to 2,000m on Thursday and the temperatures remain high. The plan, at the moment, is to open the Crozet side of the resort on Saturdays, Sundays and Wednesdays only, until we get our big fall of snow. The Lélex télécabine will be running every day. Sadly, the Faucille resort and Menthières are closed until further notice. You can consult the resorts at monts-jura.com to see the latest news and the webcams.
Alpine resorts
Details for resorts: our GenevaLiving blog this week reminded locals to check MySwitzerland for a detailed list of resorts with snow depths, quality of the snow, etc. Note that this service used to be less reliable because it depends on resorts supplying up-to-date information and they were not equally good about doing this. The service has improved and while it’s not 100 percent correct, it’s a great starting point; do also doublecheck directly with the resort for the latest information.
TSR, Swiss public television, provides a useful Bulletin d’enneigement that provides lift ticket prices as well as the latest snowfall information. Note that it’s organized by canton and is in French.
Highlights in resorts this week: Crans-Montana invited former Italian ski star Alberto Tomba to help inaugurate its new lift, Audemars Piguet Bellalui, 14 January. La Bomba, as he was known, had a place on the podium for the first time in 1987, at the World Championships in Crans-Montana.
The new four-seat chairlift went into service before Christmas, and 31 December it carried nearly 10,000 skiers in one day. The new lift has the potential to double the capacity of the old lift and button lift it replaced.
Verbier: plan ahead for the weekend of 29-30 January if you want to test top-quality freeride equipment, part of Ultimate Test Tour.
Zermatt: when you’re up skiing at 3,900 metres, think about Swiss beauty queens, who chilled out on top Friday 14 January for a day-long photo shoot for the next Jelmoli catalogue. Brrrr, but they say they loved it.
Weather forecast
No snow in sight and unseasonally warm weather, is what MeteoSwiss, the national weather service is offering us throughout Switzerland for the next five days. Even Zermatt, normally chillier than the rest of canton Valais, will have highs of 2-6C throughout the week, and on south-facing Alpine villages highs are expected of 6-9C. Geneva will hover around a springlike 12C.
Remember to keep an eye on the weather on GenevaLunch’s weather pages for Geneva and Zurich.
Ski, snowboard races: competition
It’s a busy weekend for sports competitions, many of which are televised on public TV, and you can also watch downhill live on the web, on TSR. The men’s super-combined in Wengen, canton Bern, was won Friday by Croatia’s Ivica Kostelic, followed closely by Switzerland’s Carlo Janka, but one of the key moments was the return to competition by Daniel Albrecht, badly injured nearly two years ago in a crash.
The Wengen men’s Lauberhorn downhill race is one of the highlights of the season: at 12:30 Saturday, televised.
The women’s giant in Maribor is also being televised.
Ski and snowboard tips if you’re flying to Switzerland from abroad: Easyjet came out the clear number one airline at Geneva for 2010, with 36 percent of the traffic, but Swiss, in second place with 15 percent, has been making a real push to rebuild its Geneva traffic since the old Swissair went nose down and the company reduced direct Geneva flights. Both airlines are now offering several daily connections between the UK and Geneva for the winter season. Note that Swiss allows you one piece of winter sports equipment free of charge, but you must book your luggage, including skis, when you book your flight. Easyjet makes a clear distinction between sporting goods and baggage, and you must show up with the combination allowance you’ve booked.
The new Aminona resort would be built next to the three existing white towers
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The WWF Switzerland and the Swiss Fund for the Protection of Nature (FP) said Tuesday 8 December they have filed an appeal against the Aminona resort project near Crans-Montana in canton Valais, saying they “fear a fiasco for nature and the surrounding countryside, as well as for the region itself.”
The CHF350 million-plus plan, proposed by Aminona Luxury Resort and Village (ALRV)/Mirax, with support from the commune of Mollens, calls for 15 buildings to be constructed. Mollens has given a green light to the first phase of the project moving ahead, but environmental groups say neither the Russian developer Mirax nor the commune have given adequate assurances to a series of questions raised: the additional pressure on surrounding undeveloped areas, transport management, water supplies in this dryest part of Switzerland, energy management. For transport, WWF and the FP say the commune has provided only contradictory information, saying on the one hand public transport will be provided, and on the other, that the plans call for more than 500 parking spaces with no coordinated public transport.
You don't have to see snow to know it's winter: just watch the trees filled with men in Geneva: pruning the plane trees, 5 Feb 2009
Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Geneva schools and French schools break up today for a week of holidays and many will head for the mountains, for the traditional ski week. Expect queues in French resorts in particular.
The weather for the next few days is wet near the lake, snowy in the mountains, with the snowline down to 500 metres Saturday and lower Sunday or Monday.
Weather, competitions and resort reports follow. Read more…
Calm before the storm: hard to believe 23 January, but Thursday 22 January the sky was blue in Geneva, and Mont Blanc and other peaks felt as if they were on the city's doorstep. Foreground: jet d'eau.
Lake Geneva region, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Weather is on the mind this weekend, with heavy rain falling on the plain, snow in the mountains and a very large question mark about where the snow line will fall. Shirley Curran captured on camera the beauty of the Jura, just minutes from Geneva: see her photo collection from the past few days at the end of this report (click on images to view larger).
Read more…
The Yellowstone Club, an exclusive ski resort and club in Montana, USA, has filed for bankruptcy, signaling, according to Reuters, that “the financial crisis roiling the real estate and leisure industries is not limited to the low end of the market.” The company has asked for Chapter 11 (bankruptcy protection in the US) hearings to be expedited so it can obtain financing, as it plans to continue operating.
