Summer and Autumn Ski-ing
In summer the snowline climbs ever higher, and the scope of the ski-runner is accordingly limited. Climbers who go straight up a peak and down again to the valley will therefore be unwilling to burden themselves with ski; but for a man who spends several days in club huts without ever descending far below the summer snowline, the use of ski for snow-peaks is as valuable as at any other season of the year. Monte Rosa, Ebnefluh, Fiescherhorn, etc., yield quite as good ski-ing down to the club-hut levels in August as in January—better, in fact, for the snow is usually better in August than in January.
Of course the crevasses are more open than in spring, and the greatest care is needed after a fresh fall of snow.
The snow conditions as the summer advances gradually change. July is not unlike June, excepting that there is less snow on the mountains and that the snowline is higher. Otherwise one finds in July all the varieties of spring snow from film crust to granular snow.
On 20 August the sun is at the same altitude as on 20 April, and on 20 September it is at the same altitude as on 20 March. So that towards the end of September we should expect that the sun would be powerless to affect powder snow on north slopes just as it is powerless at the end of March to transform powder into crust on north slopes at reasonably high altitudes.
In August powder snow on north slopes usually remains uncrusted for two or three days after a fall. The wind, which was powerless in May or June, begins to regain its ascendancy. In August one finds at high altitudes on north slopes all the usual effects of wind action that one may observe in April. One does not see the same traces of wind that one observes in January, for the snowfalls are lighter and the sun is stronger, but windboard and rippled snow are common enough in August.
In September and October snow remains powdery unless affected by Föhn on north slopes above 9000 feet.
In October the snowfalls usually begin at the ordinary alpine centres. I have enjoyed perfect ski-ing at Mürren by the middle of October; ski expeditions in the High Alps have also been carried out at this date, though the practice is to be discouraged; for, of course, the glaciers are never so dangerous as in October or November, when the maximum number of crevasses are open and the snow bridges more insecure than at any other period of the year.
In a few years’ time many club huts will be provided with ski, so that the trouble of carrying ski to the summer snowline will no longer exist. When once this obstacle to summer ski-ing is removed, I confidently expect that it will be the exception rather than the rule to see climbers ascending Monte Rosa or similar peaks without ski at any period of the year.