Surfers have been chasing countless summer season since lengthy earlier than the eponymous 1966 movie glorified it–however what about skiers religiously searching snowy turns all yr lengthy? It’s doable to get your snowboarding repair throughout the summer season months by way of a chairlift at ski areas constructed on snow-safe glaciers, however you may need to make a visit out of it. In reality, {many professional} freestyle skiers and ski racers spend their summers coaching in these spots, and so are you able to.
Many ski resorts within the Alps and a few in North America provide entry to snowboarding on a glacier within the winter months, however the magic actually unfolds if you get to inform your folks you went snowboarding in July or August. When you dwell in North America, your greatest guess for scoring chairlift-accessed summer season turns is by reserving a aircraft ticket to Europe and heading to the Alps.
There are a handful of ski areas in Switzerland, Austria, France, and Italy that function from June via August (and generally later, because of high-elevation summer season snowfall). After all, there’s additionally Oregon’s Timberline resort, residence to the Palmer Glacier and its sturdy summer season snowboarding program with freestyle camps and runs open to the general public. Whistler-Blackcomb has additionally opened summer season snowboarding entry to its Horstmann Glacier prior to now, nevertheless it hasn’t opened in the previous couple of years because of low snowpack.
Photograph: Wikimedia
1. Zermatt/Cervinia, Switzerland
Located within the shadow of Switzerland’s most well-known peak, the Matterhorn, the comfy mountain village of Zermatt can be residence to one of many greatest summer season ski areas on the earth. Due to its extraordinarily excessive elevation (with lifts topping out at nearly 13,000 toes), this can be a fairly protected guess to attain turns properly into the summer season. Cruise round on over 20 miles of groomed pistes and pop over the border into Italy for lunch earlier than returning to the Swiss facet for après. The summer season season right here usually runs from the top of April properly into October.
2. Saas-Charge, Switzerland
Switzerland’s Saas-Charge has turn out to be the summer season and early-season hub for European freestyle skiers because of the resort’s dedication to constructing and sustaining an enormous terrain park all season lengthy. When you’re itching to slip some rails, spin some jumps, or work in your alley-oops within the superpipe, you are able to do this at Saas-Charge. Come rub shoulders with the world’s greatest park skiers and benefit from the après scene within the car-free village of Saas-Charge after driving all day lengthy. Saas-Charge’s summer season season usually runs from July to October.
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3. Hintertux, Austria
Austria’s Hintertux Glacier has lengthy been well-known for its year-round operation, catering to skiers 12 months a yr. Within the winter, it’s one in all Austria’s largest ski resorts and is a part of the Zillertal 3000 ski resort community above the city of Mayrhofen. For summer season skiers, the glacier presents a few of the steepest terrain within the space and a hilariously distinctive “Funitel” gondola. There are additionally terrain parks and sufficient mellow terrain to maintain anybody entertained.
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4. Stelvio Move, Italy
On the prime of Italy’s historic Stelvio Move lies the Alps’ singular summer-only ski space. The famously winding street main as much as the Move from the gorgeous historic metropolis of Bormio is barely open in the summertime. Wind up the 48 switchbacks to entry the small however mighty glacier ski space on the northern slopes of the Ortler and dig into some summer season turns earlier than indulging in some gelato and an espresso. There are even a couple of historic resorts atop the cross you possibly can spend the evening in.
5. Tignes, France
Whereas France’s most well-known glaciers is perhaps on Mont Blanc, there isn’t a lot summer season resort snowboarding to do in Chamonix (adventurous backcountry skiers and ski mountaineers have loads to look ahead to right here in the summertime months). Nevertheless, a bit of additional south, Tignes presents summer season skiers loads of glacier-bound enjoyable because of elevations reaching over 10,000 toes. The season on Tignes’s Grande Motte Glacier normally runs into August.
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6. Les 2 Alpes, France
Near the well-known steep snowboarding mecca of La Grave, Les 2 Alpes is France’s summer season hotspot for glacier snowboarding. It’s obtained one of many greatest summer season terrain parks in Europe with a superpipe, airbag, and loads of rail and soar traces to maintain even the hungriest park rats completely satisfied. Very similar to Timberline, it’s residence to a slew of freestyle and ski racing camps.
Photograph: Matt Roebke
7. Timberline, Oregon, U.S.
As the one glacier-based summer season ski space within the U.S., Oregon’s Timberline Ski Resort has fairly a fame to uphold. Located excessive on Mount Hood (Wy’East), an energetic stratovolcano, Timberline hosts a slew of snowboarding summer season camps like Windells and Mount Hood Ski and Snowboard Camps. Somewhat over an hour outdoors Portland, it’s the place to go if you wish to get your summer season park snowboarding repair or simply slide round on some slushy groomers.
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What Is a Glacier Ski Resort?
You most likely already guessed it, however a glacier ski resort is a ski resort constructed both solely or partly on a glacier. Suppose again to third-grade geology, and also you’ll keep in mind these lots of slow-moving ice are present in excessive mountains all the world over and are basically rivers of frozen water that creep downhill over time. Sadly, because of local weather change, most of our planet’s glaciers are receding (fairly shortly in lots of areas), so glacier snowboarding isn’t lengthy for this world.
Since these rivers of ice are in fixed movement, chairlifts, gondolas, and different infrastructure usually can’t be constructed immediately onto the glacier—as an alternative, they’re constructed onto moraines, rocky outcroppings, and different stable surfaces subsequent to the ice. After all, you’re not really snowboarding immediately on the glacial ice as a result of it’s buried below many toes of snow. The great factor about summer season snowboarding is that the snow circumstances are typically tremendous gentle.
Glacier ski resorts are typically discovered at very excessive elevations; almost all of them are above 8,000 toes.
Is Glacier Snowboarding Harmful?
Usually, should you keep on marked runs, snowboarding at a glacier ski space is not any extra harmful than common snowboarding. Nevertheless, should you do enterprise off-piste you’ll wish to be ready to take care of unmarked crevasses and different hazards. Public summer season slopes are typically fairly mellow and low angle, as steeper slopes are inclined to soften out quicker and current elevated avalanche hazard with warming snow.
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