People of the Alps, I need your help

kurthest

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Norway
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So, I've been planning a 2 week trip through Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Austria, Italy, France and Switzerland, starting early May.

But I've just become aware of the fact that many of the passes I plan to drive usually don't open until June.

So if you have knowledge of the current conditions in the Alps, I would really appreciate your feedback on how the snow conditions look this year and if you have some good links to live status of the passes. (I havent been able to find any good ones with updated information)

Amongst the places I'm planning to drive are:
- Grossglockner High alpine road (from what I understand, this normally opens from 1st of May)
- Dolomites: Passo Giau, Passo tre Croci, Passo Stalle, Passo Gardena, Stelvio (might be open on the Bormio side to the top?)
- Route des Grandes Alpes: Col de la Bonette, Col de Restefond, Col de L'Izoard, Col de L'Iseran, Col du Galibier
- Swiss alps: Nufenen Pass, Furka Pass, Grimsel Pass, Susten Pass, St Gottardo Pass, Oberalp Pass, San Bernardino Pass, Klausen Pass

I've already planned my route out and booked hotels, so I'm hoping I don't have to make too many changes at this point.
 
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As an unofficial ambassador for the Dolomites: Passo Giau, Passo tre Croci, Passo Gardena are generally open all year round, Passo Stalle should open in the middle of May according to German Wikipedia and Stelvio can open as late as the beginning of June depending on the weather.

You should find somewhat up-to-date information here (in German).

- - - Updated - - -

I'd research the others tomorrow, gotta sleep now...
 
Thanks for the link.
That certainly throws a huge monkey wrench in my plan.
Looks like I should change my plan to include some more days in Italy, and totally forget about Route des Grandes Alpes.
 
That's not too bad a call, driving-wise at least. Having been to all passes mentioned above, they can all be open in late May at least.. :p Stelvio and Grossglockner are definitely worst from that list on the weather front. I had to detour around latter in mid-august, since it was snowing so much at the top.
 
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Most higher Swiss Passes are snowed in at the moment. Nothing will happen there until June.

But the good thing is Nufenen, Grimsel, Susten, Furka, Oberalp, Gotthard and San Bernardino are easy to bypass, only the Klausen needs a bigger reroute if closed.
 
My trip turned out to be quite the disaster, except some very nice days in Germany, where I drove a lot faster than many other cars.
Some of the problems:
- Forgot the charger to my GoPro. Was not able to find a replacement along the road.
- My Navigation DVD's for Germany/Austria/Italy/Switzerland would not work
- My iPhone died, so no navigation at all, so had to rely on my ViaMichelin book.
- Most passes was closed

So next year I am definately going in late august/early september, like I did last year.
Must say though, southern Germany in May was awesome!
 
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