Will you be crossing a Swiss mountain pass anytime soon? Yesterday I drove from Varenna on Lake Como (If you haven't gone to Varenna I strongly advise that you consider doing so) to the Berner Oberland. I drive my own car, so we were driving. I was surprised to find most of the high mountain passes which should have opened 6 weeks ago are still closed. I was looking forward to another crossing of the Susten Pass, or perhaps the Grimsel Pass and was disappointed to see that: St Gotthard Tunnel St Gotthard Pass San Bernardino Tunnel were open, but the following were all firmly closed: Grimsel Pass Susten Pass Oberalp Pass Furka Pass
Nufenen Pass. If you intend to go over any of these I suggest early checking. I didn't look at either Simplon or Spluga passes.
Posted by
Seattle, WA
17422 posts
What a shame---I'll bet you were looking forward to the beautiful scenery on those passes. What tunnel did you end up using?
Posted by
OP
Northamptonshire, England
33820 posts
We ended up in the Gotthard, then Brunig pass (open and snow-free) over the hills.
Posted by
Tilburg, Netherlands
2829 posts
Nigel, The Simplon pass is open year-round. It is a major truck route, actually, that can't be closed except on the most snowny days. What happened is that Switzerland had an unusual spell of late Spring snow. That didn't have time to settle, and make certain slopes dangerous (avalanche risks).