Snowfall in Austria and the Eastern Alps Gets Ever More Epic

The huge snowstorm that has been sat over the Eastern Alps for several weeks now has brought ever more remarkable volumes of snowfall to the region, and there’s no real sign of it ending any time soon (although current forecasts are for the amount of snow falling to decrease).

(Image top: SkiStar St Johann in Tirol)

The snowfall initially brought as much at 2.1m (7 feet) snowfall tallies to some areas in 7 days but as the snow has continued falling total accumulations have now passed 3 metres (10 feet) for some resorts.

Infact Austria’s Tauplitzalm says it has had 3 metres (10 feet) of snow in the last week, Saalbach 2.7 metres (9 feet).

Upper slope base depths are now touching four metres at ski areas including Solden, which reported 70cm in the past few days and Loser which has had 90cm (3 feet) of new snow since Saturday.

The result is of course incredible powder conditions, but the volume of snow is also causing operational difficulties as municipalities struggle to keep road and rail access open, dig out lifts and make runs safe.  The off-piste avalanche danger has been at or near level 4 (one below the maximum danger level of 5) and several resorts including Obertauern, Filzmoos and Obergurgl have been all but cut off overnight with access roads closed as a precautionary measure due to the avalanche danger.

The entire ski village of Hochkar was evacuated on Monday amid fears of avalanches, something that has never happened there before.

Some ski areas including the Dachstein, Hintertux, Kaunertal and Molltal glaciers have been temporarily closed by the extreme weather, others have had to limit the terrain open. 

The Molltal Glacier which is open for snowsports 10.5 months a year has reported 75cm in the past 24 hours.

The snowfall has not just been limited to Austria – ski areas in southern Germany, Eastern Switzerland, Poland and the Czech and Slovak Republic have posted some huge accumulations too.

For the past two weeks however there has been a strict divide with almost no snowfall in the Western Alps on France or Western Italy, whilst it has been dumping on the Eastern side of the dividing line.  

Zell am See pictured below