 Poster: A snowHead
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@JohnMo, An international pass is therefore a 'no brainer' for me for 6 days. I will gamble on being able to get over at least one day. Always done it for the last 10 visits or so.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Weather looking good over the next week and then a bit of a warmer spell the week after?
Not an expert on the forecasts but hopefully the snowline doesn't rise up too much.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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| Run28 wrote: |
Weather looking good over the next week and then a bit of a warmer spell the week after?
Not an expert on the forecasts but hopefully the snowline doesn't rise up too much. |
Those temperatures early next week are high enough to mean any daytime precipitation will be rain in town but you won’t need to go too far up the mountain for it to be snow. Given that the season opening at the end of that week is all above 2000m it continues to be good news for that. Plus they can get a lot of snowmaking done piling on top of the snow from the two storms this week.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Something brewing around opening weekend as well. Too far out to get excited about 
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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I’ve said it many times but the Italians are great at getting slopes open as early as possible. The only slope open at present is the upper part of the Ventina down from Plateau Rosa to Cime Laghi Bianche. However from tomorrow they are opening the three lifts that go up from Plan Maison to Theodulpass. So plenty to ski on the Italian side without even needing to go over to the Swiss side. You can see on the webcams they have built a good artificial base (with the help of some real snow) and they are opening in anticipation of the snow later today. The Swiss side is probably going to get the best of that. But the Italians will probably get the best of Thursday’s.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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| Jamo wrote: |
| Something brewing around opening weekend as well. Too far out to get excited about |
Just to be clear “opening weekend” is 30/11 for the whole area?
Pedestrian access to glacier not until 20/12 according to the website?
I’m asking because we are out from 05/12 so hopefully all that can be will be open. We are with a couple of non-skiers and we had hoped to get up to glacier perhaps a lunch at the small refuge hut type restaurant up there or even down into Zermatt with them - but it seems that’s a non-no?
Thanks - the website says what it says but no substitute for on the ground knowledge!
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Slight thread hijack but I am hoping someone here may know the answer to the following......UK based, I have a trip to the US booked for Feb/Mar and have bought an Ikon Pass to cover my time there. My plan was to initialise and pick up a pass on my first day out there. The stars are aligning which may allow me a European trip in early Jan and I thought a cost effective idea might be to go to Zermatt to use the Ikon Pass there as a bit of a free hit. Thing is, I would be initialising the Ikon Pass there and I have no idea how that might work (Ikon website says just use your Ikon Pass, but I won't physically have one) and looking at the Zermatt website you wouldn't have a clue it is even covered by the pass which might make for a difficult conversation at the ticket office. Has anyone kicked off usage of Ikon at Zermatt?
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| Doccam wrote: |
| Jamo wrote: |
| Something brewing around opening weekend as well. Too far out to get excited about |
Just to be clear “opening weekend” is 30/11 for the whole area?
Pedestrian access to glacier not until 20/12 according to the website?
I’m asking because we are out from 05/12 so hopefully all that can be will be open. We are with a couple of non-skiers and we had hoped to get up to glacier perhaps a lunch at the small refuge hut type restaurant up there or even down into Zermatt with them - but it seems that’s a non-no?
Thanks - the website says what it says but no substitute for on the ground knowledge! |
As you are coming from Cervinia I am afraid that is correct. A pedestrian can get up to Plateau Rosa/Testa Grigia via gondolas to Plan Maison then Cime Laghi Bianche then Plateau Rosa/Testa Grigia. However, for a pedestrian to get up to Klein Matterhorn you need the Swiss gondola Matterhorn Glacier Ride II. That was open until last weekend but now is closed for scheduled maintenance until 20 December. It is then closed again from 6 January until 14 February.
That might seem odd but the Matterhorn Glacier Ride II lift is not really a skiers’/deep winter lift. It is there for pedestrian tourists who want to come to Switzerland and Italy and allows them to cut out a huge amount of road travel (their buses still have to do that) as well as have an amazing experience. Most of that type of tourism is spring, summer and winter. Based on the numbers on the annual reports it seems to be working.
Just to annoy you further the Matterhorn Glacier Ride I (from Trockener Steg up to Klein Matterhorn) will be running. So Swiss side pedestrians can get right up to the top. Swiss side lift company’s lifts, Swiss side lift company’s rules I guess.
At Testa Grigia (the highest point you can get to on foot at that time) there is a restaurant: the Rifugio Guide Del Cervino. I quite like it but it is small and fairly basic. It is a nice place to pop into when you are skiing but it is not really a destination restaurant.
As regards skiers, yes “everything” (except the Hirli lift the other side of Schwarzsee and the Kumme lift at the far north end of Zermatt) will be open. “Everything” means lifts will be open and there will be pistes running from each lift. However, not all pistes will be open. In particular the black runs and the yellow itineraries will probably not be open. On the Swiss side the runs into town will not be open (but no big loss there). On the Italian side the runs into town should be open if the snow allows it. Given how things are going it looks very likely they will be open.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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Thanks for all this interesting info @johnmo  .
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However, not all pistes will be open.
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Regarding your comments on piste access, when you say the blacks, yellows and runs into town won't be open...presumably they're open if there is sufficient cover?
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| Technician wrote: |
| Slight thread hijack but I am hoping someone here may know the answer to the following......UK based, I have a trip to the US booked for Feb/Mar and have bought an Ikon Pass to cover my time there. My plan was to initialise and pick up a pass on my first day out there. The stars are aligning which may allow me a European trip in early Jan and I thought a cost effective idea might be to go to Zermatt to use the Ikon Pass there as a bit of a free hit. Thing is, I would be initialising the Ikon Pass there and I have no idea how that might work (Ikon website says just use your Ikon Pass, but I won't physically have one) and looking at the Zermatt website you wouldn't have a clue it is even covered by the pass which might make for a difficult conversation at the ticket office. Has anyone kicked off usage of Ikon at Zermatt? |
Ha! I can tell you how to do it the other way round. I have a Zermatt annual pass and I go to my friend’s in Steamboat (part of IKON) every year. It was a right pain when the linkup between Zermatt and IKON first started because almost no-one in either lift company had a clue how it worked.
In Zermatt when you buy your pass you get a set of vouchers, one of which is for a 7 day IKON pass. That voucher has a voucher number. I then go onto the IKON website to buy a 7 day pass. I think I have to do it before the end of November – might be mid-December - as they go off sale then. Zermatt 7 day passes never go off sale so you might not have the same issue. I proceed as if I am buying it and then on the final page I am invited to enter a voucher code, which I do, and it brings the price down to zero – I then checkout. When I get to Steamboat I go to the ticket office with my IKON pass and they activate it for seven days in Steamboat.
I have just gone through the Zermatt website as if I was buying a 7 day pass. On the final checkout page there is a box for a voucher code. I suspect that when you get your IKON pass you would get a voucher the number of which could be entered in there.
I appreciate that this gets to the crux of the problem: you don’t have your IKON pass so you don’t have the voucher. I wonder if you can get them to mail or email it to you?
It is a few years back but the email address where I finally found people who (a) knew about the link up; and (b) could tell me what to do was:
zermatt@ikonpass.com
Hopefully they can sort you.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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| Jamo wrote: |
Thanks for all this interesting info @johnmo .
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However, not all pistes will be open.
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Regarding your comments on piste access, when you say the blacks, yellows and runs into town won't be open...presumably they're open if there is sufficient cover? |
Possibly. The Italians are good at opening things up when the snow allows. The Swiss are good at opening things up when the timetable says! I get a bit frustrated looking at the National piste (a black one) down from Sunnegga to Patrullarve in December seeing it covered in snow and with the nearby reds open and them not opening it up. You could be lucky but, on the Swiss side at least, I would work on the basis of no blacks, no yellows and no home runs until Xmas week.
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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Thanks JohnMo. I'll try that specific email address - I did send an email to a more general email address at Ikon but got nothing back - and see how if that elicits a response.
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Duplicate
Last edited by So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much  on Tue 19-11-24 20:31; edited 1 time in total
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You know it makes sense.
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| JohnMo wrote: |
Possibly. The Italians are good at opening things up when the snow allows. The Swiss are good at opening things up when the timetable says!
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Right, gotcha. 
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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| Technician wrote: |
| Thanks JohnMo. I'll try that specific email address - I did send an email to a more general email address at Ikon but got nothing back - and see how if that elicits a response. |
By a weird coincidence I have just been reading the December issue of the Ski Club of Great Britain’s magazine. They have an article by some Brits (Fran Brosan and Sebastian Brunt) who did exactly what you are doing: bought a US IKON pass and then did some European resorts (first one Zermatt) followed by some US resorts. So they must have worked out how to do what you want to do.
You could maybe email the editor (Nicola Iseard) at snowmail@skiclub.co.uk and ask if she would pass on your question to the two authors of the article.
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Poster: A snowHead
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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| twoodwar wrote: |
https://zermatt.roundshot.com/zermatterhof/#/share-camera
Village looking a bit better this morning! |
It certainly is. And looking like tomorrow into Friday could be even better.
The irony of me praising the Italians for (planning) opening from Plan Maison is that they can’t get anything open (ditto the Swiss) because of the ongoing storm. Ah well: no storms; no snow.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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Great pointer JohnMo. Ski Club GB came back very swiftly. Seems like I show the ticket office my Ikon app with photo and paid up status and they will issue a Zermatt ticket.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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| Technician wrote: |
| Great pointer JohnMo. Ski Club GB came back very swiftly. Seems like I show the ticket office my Ikon app with photo and paid up status and they will issue a Zermatt ticket. |
Great news. One thing to bear in mind is that the Ikon link up is only with the Zermatt lift company and not the Cervinia one. So any day you wanted to go over to Cervinia you would need to pay the CHF52 daily upgrade.
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FAQ
