Where’s Still Going To Be Open To Ski in the Alps in May 2022?

With more heavy snowfall above 1800m in the Alps over the past 24 hours (Val d’Isere pictured) and more forecast, it is raising the prospect that there may be better snow conditions in the latter half of April, post-Easter, and even the start of May, than there were at times in March.  Up high at least.

We’re still too far away to be sure of that, but temperatures have certainly been dipping lower and the snow has been falling since the start of April and there’s a lot more in the forecast over the coming week.

At the same time the COVID travel rules and regs, as well as restrictions on day to day life in resorts are easing, making a late-season trip more appealing. It’s a mixed picture but recent changes include France no longer requiring passenger locator films be filled out and allowing in non-vaxxed skiers in possession of a recent negative test result, Italy removing the need to use a COVID passport before riding a lift and Norway, like England, getting rid of pretty well all restrictions.

So where’s still going to be open in May?

Traditionally the first few weeks of May sees the last resorts in the northern hemisphere closing. By the middle of the month we can be down to just a handful of glacier areas still operating before more re-open in June for summer skiing.

Here’s some of the resorts staying open late in the Alps:

Austria:

Resorts like Obertauern and Ischgl make it to the very start of may but it’s glacier areas from then on. The Hintertux, Kaunertal, Kitzsteinhorn, Molltal and Stubai glaciers should all remain open all through May 2022.

France:

High altitude ski areas, most with glaciers, should make it through the final weeks of April and into May. Val Thorens, Europe’s highest area, has a special “La Grande Dernière” closing weekend of celebrations including an open-to-all ski race from 6 to 8 May.

Most tour operators stop their programmes in mid-April but a few specialists can still create packages to the very end of the season.

“We can still organise holidays to Tignes, Val D’Isere, Val Thorens, Les Deux Alpes and Chamonix until early May,” confirmed Xavier Schouller of Peak Retreats.

“To tell the truth we’re busiest now booking the groups for next year who want to secure whole chalets, and the families who want the most popular school holiday weeks, but we’re still selling an all-inclusive Val Thorens package for the first week of May and can tailor make pretty much anywhere the customer asks for,” said Richard Sinclair of SNO.

Italy

Cervinia aims to stay open in to May and the Presena Glacier has announced it will remain open to the middle of the month.

Switzerland

It’s the glacier areas staying open into May in Switzerland too. Year-round Zermatt will celebrate two-years of pretty-much non-stop operation of its glacier slopes following the end of Switzerland’s one and only lockdown in spring 2020.

Engelberg, currently boasting Europe’s deepest snowpack of 3 metres/10 feet up on its glacier, will open the final weekend of the month. The Diavolezza glacier near St Moritz is aiming for May 8th.