Zermatt Temporarily Suspends Summer Skiing

Zermatt, home to the highest lift-served ski slopes in Europe and the only ski area still left aiming to operate skiing 365 days a year, has announced the temporary closure of summer skiing for visitors on the Theodul Glacier.

“Zermatt Bergbahnen is temporarily suspending summer skiing operations for guests on the Theodul Glacier due to the exceptional weather conditions of recent weeks. The training slopes groomed by Zermatt Bergbahnen will remain available to individual Swiss-Ski teams for training on a limited basis,” a statement from the resort explained on Friday.

The persistently high temperatures, the lack of a night-time cool-down, repeated thunderstorms and the changed snow and glacier conditions mean that it is currently no longer possible to provide safe, high-quality skiing for guests. The challenges facing the technical maintenance of the transport facilities are constantly increasing due to these changed conditions, the statement continued.

The only other year-round ski area that had been operating, Austria’s Hintertux, announced at the start of the year that it would no longer run its ski slopes between July and September and began its 2026 slope closure last weekend.  It still has Austria’s longest season at around 10 months.

Zermatt was last forced to temporarily suspend public summer skiing four years ago almost to the day, on July 29, 2022, again due to severe heatwaves, high freezing levels, and rain above 4,000 meters. Operations later resumed on September 20, 2022, after cooler temperatures and fresh snowfall restored safe slope conditions.

Martin Hug, CEO of Zermatt Bergbahnen, emphasises: “The safety of guests and staff is always our top priority. At the same time, we attach great importance to ensuring that our guests can enjoy good and safe conditions throughout the entire operating season. If these conditions are no longer met, operations will be responsibly adapted to the natural circumstances.”

Hans Flatscher, Alpine Director at Swiss-Ski, says: “Thanks once again to the excellent work of Zermatt Bergbahnen, we have found superb conditions on the Theodul Glacier since the end of June. We are very grateful that at least some of our teams will have the opportunity to complete training sessions in Zermatt over the coming days, despite the challenging circumstances.”

The temporary suspension affects only summer skiing operations for guests. The situation is being monitored continuously and reassessed on a daily basis. Maintenance work on the slopes and transport facilities is continuing, as are preparations for the guest and training slopes. As soon as natural conditions allow, summer skiing operations for guests will resume immediately, the resort statement adds, concluding, Summer skiing is of great strategic importance to Zermatt Bergbahnen and the Zermatt destination. It forms a vital foundation for alpine ski racing and, in particular, for the development of young talent. Together with Swiss-Ski and numerous international federations, Zermatt Bergbahnen remains committed to offering summer skiing wherever natural conditions permit.

At time of writing summer skiing is still possible at two ski areas in the Alps, Italy’s Passo Stelvio and Saas-Fee in Switzerland.