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SPORTS

World Cup ski season delayed due to ‘heavy snowfall’ on Swiss-Italian border

International Ski Federation officials said the decision was taken "to guarantee everyone's safety" at the cross-border venue of Zermatt-Cervinia.

Published: 11 November 2023 14:12 CET
World Cup ski season delayed due to 'heavy snowfall' on Swiss-Italian border
The ski resort of Cervinia on November 11, 2023 after the men's downhill event was cancelled due to strong winds and heavy snow in Zermatt-Cervinia. Photo: Marco BERTORELLO/AFP.

Strong winds and “heavy snowfall” on Saturday caused the delayed opening round of the men’s World Cup skiing season to be cancelled at the controversial cross-border venue of Zermatt-Cervinia.

International Ski Federation officials said the decision was taken “to guarantee everyone’s safety” at the course which straddles the Swiss-Italian frontier.

“Due to the heavy snowfall from last night and this morning, together with the strong winds, (we) have decided to cancel today’s downhill race,” organisers said a statement. There was no indication whether Sunday’s scheduled second race would take place.

If the race does get the go-ahead, it will mark the start of the 2023/24 season after the traditional curtain-raiser, planned for Soelden in Austria at the end of October, was cancelled due to high winds.

The Zermatt-Cervinia event, which will be the first cross-border race in the history of the World Cup, starting in Switzerland and finishing in Italy, had already been overshadowed by environmental issues.

Olympic downhill runner-up Johan Clarey denounced work on the site as “nonsense” with “huge helicopter resources and human resources to fill in the crevasses and make the track acceptable”.

“The conditions on the glaciers are getting worse every year,” said the 42-year-old, who retired in May.

Swiss newspaper ’20 minutes’ reignited the controversy in October with its pictures of diggers carving up the Theodule glacier to prepare the Gran Becca course.

Urs Lehmann, president of the Swiss Ski Association, said the articles were “deliberately biased… at a time when climate change and sustainability have become central issues”.

“Nobody would have skied on a glacier for decades,” without bulldozers to make them safe, he added. But Zermatt-Cervinia is a further illustration of the artificialisation of the mountains to host sporting events, even though the effects of global warming are spectacular.

At the 2022 Olympic Games in Beijing, snow machines were needed to provide a suitable surface on otherwise dry slopes.

Helicopters and snow trucks were used in 2017 to prepare the legendary Austrian downhill at Kitzbuehel.

Two women’s downhill races are also scheduled for Zermatt-Cervinia next weekend. The events were cancelled last year because of lack of snow.

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WEATHER

Will Switzerland be visited by ‘Ice Saints’ this year?

Ascension is not the only annual happening in the country in May, as Switzerland also ‘celebrates’ another 'chilling' event this month.

Published: 8 May 2024 14:20 CEST
Will Switzerland be visited by 'Ice Saints' this year?

From May 11th to the 15th, a meteorological event takes place each year in Switzerland.

It “observes”, though admittedly not on scientific basis, a centuries-old weather phenomenon called “Ice Saints”.

What exactly is it?

As its name suggests, it is related to saints, as well as ice and frost.

The saints in question are St Mamertus, St Pancras, St Servatius and St Boniface.

According to a weather lore, once these Ice Saints have passed through Switzerland in the middle of May, frost will no longer pose a threat to farmers and their land.

As the official government meteorological service MeteoSwiss explains it, “spring frosts have been a regular occurrence for centuries, giving rise to the traditional belief that a blast of cold air often arrives in the middle of May. Over time, this piece of weather lore became known as the Ice Saints.”

Fact versus myth

You may be wondering whether the Ice Saints lore actually has basis in reality.

Records, which date back to 1965 and originate from the Geneva-Cointrin, Payerne, and Zurich-Kloten weather stations, “clearly show that, over the long-term average, frost directly above the soil is only a regular occurrence up until the middle of April”, MeteoSwiss says. “After that, the frequency with which ground frost occurs progressively declines to almost zero by the end of May.”

“We can conclude, therefore, that there is no evidence in Switzerland to confirm the Ice Saints as a period in May when ground frost is more common.”

However, MeteoSwiss does concede that “ground frost is nevertheless a regular occurrence throughout May as a whole…having occurred at least once or twice in May every year, and in around 40 percent of the years there were more than two days in May with ground frost.”

What about this year?

MeteoSwiss weather forecast for the next seven days indicates that, this year too, no frost will be present on the ground in mid-May.

In fact, temperatures through much of Switzerland will be in double digits, reaching between 18C and 25C, depending on the region.

You can see what to expect in your area, here. 

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