Alps - High Passes in Late June (16-30)

[Mark]

Snow is always possible .

Stelvio , july 14 2008 :

I believe Karza and his Finns went over it that day , or was it the next day ?

I rode of the Grimsel that day through about 3 inches of new snow at the top. Uncleared road, no one else around.
But it isn't usual, which is why I remember the date and place.

[Michael J]

So tell me, do you guys ride in the snow with the standard 70/30 "basic" GS tires?

Paved roads will typically only be wet - maybe a bit slushy. Significant snow accumulation tends to happen on the grass and hillsides.

That being said, you have a 98%+ chance of not being bothered by it.

But then again, you'll know soon, and we can put all of this conjecture aside

[Ali in Austria]

More of a risk than snow at this time of year is cloud. If the cloud is sat on the mountains you aren"t going to see much and it can be a complete white out.

Crap. From your experience, does that kind of weather last the whole day? Or even multiple days? When does it "diminish" (e.g. early July)?

The SS300 Gavia Pass is usually one of the last ones to open.

Thanks for the heads up.

If you get over our way, call in and say hello. (1 hr South of Salzburg).

I'd love to stop by for a coffee or even spend the night if the timing is right. What's the hotel? Pension Haus Maria seems a good guess but you mention Landeck.
Is the pension house yours and you "freelance" at that other hotel as a guide?

Mountain weather; how long is a piece of string? You get times when somewhere seems to be socked in for days but the sun is normally shinning not to far away. The weather can be glorious on one side of a pass and then you enter Narnia. It can work the other way just as easily. The valley is grim but it is glorious higher up above the cloud. We live at 1200m on a large plateau and are blessed with much sunshine during the year while the town below us is cold and gloomy. Last winter saw no significant snowfall from February through to summer and was glorious sunshine most days. This year we have had over 7m of snowfall. The fields were green yesterday afternoon, I've just woken up to 6 inches of snow and its still snowing. That's mountains for you. Build in some flexibility on your trip and it will be fine.

http://rittisberg.panomax.at/ Set the archive at 0730 on 16.04.12 and then 0730 17.04.12 - what a difference a day makes.

Pension Haus Maria is our little establishment. The Hotel Enzian in Landeck belongs to a friend of mine. If you are doing The Grossglockner you aren't to far from us and The Dachstein Glacier at 2700m is a sight not to be missed. Expensive in normal circumstances but stay at a Summer Card partner establishment such as ours and it is free.

[ludwig]

.. The weather can be glorious on one side of a pass and then you enter Narnia..

On our way to the AR meet last july , 4 of us went up col de Rousset in nice , sunny weather . At The exit of the maybe 500m tunnel we ran right into a cloud : wet , limited visibility and 10 °C colder..

[Karza]

...but we had good time there in Rencurel still...

[Michael J]

...but we had good time there in Rencurel still...

I'm still a bit chilly...

[iomrob]

2009, the last weekend in July it snowed down to 1700 metres when we were in the alps, lower down thankfully.

[Sigmund Freud]

The ADAC newsletter that I`ve received higlights the expected opening dates of some of the alpine passes, details HERE

[Michael J]

If I had more time, I'd scrape the hell out of this thing and make an iPhone app

Android.