From nothing to too much. Yesterday was a day of snow for the Aosta Valley. Thanks to the weather front that arrived from France, the Aosta Valley woke up under a splendid snowfall: large, abundant flakes quickly covered the brown of the meadows that were still bare of snow. In just a few hours the landscape changed colour and perspective, plunging the Aosta Valley’s ski resorts into a full-blown Christmas atmosphere.
But the snowfall did not stop and kept bringing snow all day and all night. The snow reached record depths, over 50 cm at 1,300 m and more than 70 cm higher up, above 2,000 m.
The hardest hit were the resorts in the north-west, for example Cervinia – the real star of this huge snowfall.
The ski area at the foot of the Matterhorn has stocked up on snow: over 100 cm of fresh snow fell in a single day and it is still snowing non-stop. At 2,000 m the snow report shows 140 cm of snow, while higher up there are 220 cm. A real blizzard that has radically changed the face of the Aosta Valley (see the photos), bringing snow even where none had been seen until today, for example on the Monterosa.
The valleys of the Monterosa Ski area had not yet been able to enjoy the white stuff, and the Immaculate Conception long weekend was a complete flop. No snow even at altitude, where historically snow is always abundant and the snowmaking systems sometimes stay switched off for entire seasons. Yesterday the weather made amends, bringing plenty of snow both down in the valley and up high: over 50 cm of snow whitened both the Aosta Valley side and the Piedmont side, which would allow the ski area to reopen all its slopes… if it weren’t for the avalanche problems.
Avalanche Risk Level 5 (the most dangerous)
The “too much” snow that fell in a single day has pushed the avalanche risk to the maximum level. The danger level is at 5-very high in the Valgrisenche, Valdigne, Gran San Bernardo, Valpelline, upper Valtournenche and Val di Rhêmes sectors. In the rest of the region the forecast danger level remains at 4-high.
Venturing out onto fresh snow in these conditions is very risky. As well as urging all freeskiers to refrain from freeriding, the Region has closed some mountain roads while waiting for the mountain rescue service to make certain slopes safe by triggering controlled avalanches.
In fact, although a great deal of snow has fallen in the past few hours, the ski areas have closed many slopes to avoid accidents caused by avalanches.
The avalanche alert will remain high until the beginning of next week; everyone is advised to check the Aosta Valley avalanche bulletin
If you would like to see with your own eyes how much snow has fallen in the Aosta Valley, and in particular in Cervinia, you can click on these pages: snow webcams in Cervinia – Monterosa Ski snow webcams – snow report
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