Wintry sunrise, Rhone valley, canton Valais, Saturday 7 November 2009
Val d'anniviers, Valais, fresh snow 7 November 2009
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Valais, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – There is one day every year when you know that winter has arrived: it can’t be defined clearly by a drop in the temperature or all the leaves suddenly disappearing or even by snow arriving, but it is tangible. Saturday 7 November, winter settled in, in the Swiss Alps.
Leaves began to fall seriously last week in Vaud (Saint Prex)
First winter snow of 2009 above Aminona, Valais: 12 October
Update 14:00 Lausanne / Sierre, Valais, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – If anyone still had doubts, autumn has arrived, and in the Swiss Alps that means the first snowfall of the winter season, at high altitudes. Temperatures dropped during the night of Sunday to Monday in the Alps and while the cooler temperatures came with heavy rain around Lausanne, they brought snow to the Alps, starting at about 2000 metres altitude.
Tunnels closed, could snow down to 800 metres or lower
Heavy winds and snow were recorded in several parts of Switzerland by MeteoSwiss, the national weather service, with gusts well over 130 kph. Several tunnels closed Monday morning for the winter: Furka, San Bernardino, Klausen Nufenen and Grimsel.
Forecasts show snow falling to 800 metres in some areas, with temperatures falling: western Switzerland’s range Thursday 15 October is expected to be 2-8C, with even cooler temperatures in the east of the country, according to MeteoSwiss.
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Swiss soldiers, part of the weekend commando operation, near the A9 autoroute, Chablais
Taking the fast road down from the high alps: Swiss cows near Crans-Montana
Lausanne/Sion, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Switzerland did its best to live up to clichéd images this weekend.
Swiss soldiers were running around in the mountains as part of commando exercises with soldiers from other European countries, the cows came down from their summer pastures in the high alps in many areas – sometimes with garlands and festivities – and families headed for their vineyards in Valais to pick grapes. Valais, the largest wine-producing canton, has 26,000 grape growers, the majority of which are not commercial winemakers.
Indian summer weather graced the activities in many parts of western Switzerland Saturday.
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Three towers now but new Aminona resort would build more
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The Russian company scheduled to build a large luxury resort in Aminona, near Crans-Montana in Valais, has assured the local Swiss mayor the project will go ahead as planned, Swiss radio RSR reports. Stéphane Pont, the town manager of Mollens, Valais, the administrative commune in which Aminona is located, has reportedly received a letter from the CEO of Mirax giving assurances that it has the financial means to develop the area, following a rescheduling of its debt with a Russian bank.
Pont wrote to Mirax CEO Sergey Polonski earlier in September asking for clarification of the situation, following reports in the Russian media that Mirax was in financial trouble and that it had not obtained credits for its projects for several months. Mirax announced 21 September that “Alfa Bank bought the rights to Mirax Group loans from Credit Suisse in July 2009 and became the company’s largest creditor.”
Saas Fee, Valais, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The bodies of two Italian climbers, ages 46 and 62, were found Thursday morning 27 August on the Lagginhorn (map), near Saas Fee. They went missing Monday after setting off from the Weissmies hut to climb the Lagginhorn, a 4,010 metre peak. At 3,300 metres, for unknown reasons, the two, who were roped together, fell some 200 metres to their death. Poor weather conditions made the search for them difficult. An Air Glacier helicopter and rescue search party from Saas Fee located and retrieved the bodies.
A final resting place, as long as professionals don't sprinkle you here
Zermatt, Valais, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The head of Zermatt’s tourism office says the living don’t want to be hiking on the ashes of the dead and cantonal authorities agree: since 1 July companies that organize funeral services have been banned from sprinkling ashes in canton Valais. The change in the law came partly as a result of growing human ashes tourism from Germany, where dead bodies in any form must be buried in cemeteries. Companies in Valais had seen business grow, 20 Minutes reports, thanks to families wanting the ashes of their deceased sprinkled over the Swiss Alps.
Helicopter companies, according to the newspaper, continue to fly people over the Alps to sprinkle ashes, but the clients must be the ones to spread them.
Switzerland is just behind the Czech Republic for choosing cremation over burial, with cremation chosen 75 percent of the time. The French opt for cremation in 27 percent of cases and Italians 10 percent.
Swiss individuals and families are free to decide where they will put or spread the ashes.
Update 2, 21:10 Saas-Fee and Bourg-St-Pierre, Valais, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Four people have died in Valais in climbing accidents over the weekend of 11-12 July. A 47-year-old Italian climber fell more than 300 metres to his death from a cliff at about 3,300 metres altitude shortly after leaving the Mischabels hut near Saas-Fee early Sunday afternoon 12 July. He was part of a group of four Italian climbers.
View at dusk from Celigny, Vaud, 12 March 2009
Lake Geneva region (GenevaLunch) – Plenty of snow awaits those who look with longing up at the Alps and Jura, now that the sun has been shining and skies are clear enough to see the white peaks in all directions.
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Weekend weather from MeteoSwiss
Partly cloudy to sunny around Lake Geneva and sunny in Valais Friday, with lows of 0C and highs of 12C near Geneva and 13C in the Alps.
"My idea of skiing," by celestialpilgrim on flickr
Lake Geneva region, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The cold and snow continue, for better and for worse. Worse = being stuck in damp cold fog and better means reaching the sunshine, easy to find in the mountains where the cold is keeping the snow base good and deep.
Photo: celestialpilgrim’s image from a Val de Ferret, Valais ski touring trip can be seen in its original large size on flickr. His ski touring companion JC has posted a set of photos, Tête de Ferret par la Dotze on flickr from the weekend outing.
Cold is a relative term, of course, and Thursday the temperature on the plains rose above freezing for the first time in 13 days.
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Clear and sunny and snow remains good
Fog around Lake Geneva and on the plain, as well as at the foot of the mountains in Valais, sends people up to the peaks for sunshine and warmer weather.
Weather forecast
Skiing is one part downhill, one part thinking about it ...
(GenevaLunch) – A brief update on weather and snow:
Swiss Alps
The wild southern foehn blew hard during the night in the Rhone Valley and gusting winds from the southeast hit much of the rest of the Swiss Alps, but the weather has remained surprisingly cold, with temperatures around 2C at 1,000 metres in early afternoon. Normally the foehn melts the snow rapidly, but the amount of snow and the condition of it remains good, with an extra 10cm fresh falling in many places 24 December and early Christmas morning.
Jura
from Shirley Curran: Snow cover remains good in all our Jurassian resorts and the weather is set to remain cold over the weekend. The weather is expected to get warmer from Tuesday for a few days, so now is the time to benefit from these unusually good conditions in the Jura.
Weather forecast
and one part recovering!
Bundle up: temperatures are expected to remain below freezing everywhere for the next few days! With the bise northerly winds blowing on the plains and gusting winds in the Alps, you’ll need that extra layer. But this is good news for the snow we already have, especially as the cold weather is coming with sunshine and more sunshine: no fresh snow.
Photos, Aminona, Valais, Switzerland: Nick Bates. Click on images to view larger.
Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Snow continued to fall late Wednesday and early Thursday in the Alps, particularly on the southern side, prompting a red alert for truck traffic in some areas where roads have become impassable.
No doubt about it: it’s snowing! And snowing, and snowing in the Swiss Alps. The season’s first real snow, 22 November 2008, canton Valais, altitude 1,100 metres.
Don’t forget to look at our first winter sports and snow roundup of the 2008-09 season, published Friday 21 November.
Safely bike with a guide on mountain trails in the Swiss and French Alps with Ride the Alps. Bike rides from May to September or so, depending on snow condition, winter guided walks possible by appointments.
