Cormet de Roselend,neige
© Jordan Guéant/France 3 AlpesAt the Cormet de Roselend, the road is lined with with 15 metres of snow.
Following late snowfalls, some mountain passes may open 15 days late in Savoie and Haute-Savoie. At Cormet de Roselend, in the Beaufortain, snow removal operations have begun. In some places, the road is covered with 15 metres (50 feet) of snow.

The Savoyard passes are buried under the snow. Early May usually marks the beginning of the reopening of mountain passes to bicycles and cars. This year, after exceptional falls, they are still covered with several meters of snow. They will therefore only be able to open with a fortnight's delay.

At the small Saint-Bernard, we measure up to 6 meters (20 feet) of snow. As for the Iseran and Croix de Fer passes, snow removal will not begin until May 7. At the Galibier Pass, snow removal operations have even been stopped because of the risk of avalanches.

Snow removal in progress 🚜 with 5 to 6 m ❄❄❄ before recovering the Mont-Cenis pass road 🛣
The opening to bikes 🚴♂ and cars 🚗 could be 15 days late #SuperNeige

15 metres (50 feet) of snow at the Cormet de Roselend

The Cormet de Roselend, at 1,968 meters, may be one of the first to open. On May 3, snow removal operations began. In some places, the road is still covered with 15 metres of snow. "In the 17 years I've been here, I've never seen this much snow! Even the elders say they've never seen this!" It will take three weeks of work to clear the road.

Le Cormet de Roselend
© Jordan Guéant/France 3 Alpes
In total, nine teams were mobilised in Tarentaise. Sometimes, aerial reconnaissance is necessary to find the road. Avalanches, mudflows, landslides: the agents have a titanic job to do.

Translation: The assault is now launched, the first trenches finally pierced. The snowplows are responsible for erasing the remains of a very harsh winter. At the Cormet de Roselend this year, reopening the road to the pass, is an extraordinary battle. "I've been here 17 years, I've never seen a lot of snow like this year. We had big, big snow accumulations." At every turn the avalanches shear and swallow up the road.

"So you tell me about two or three days." "Yes it should, it will take at least two days." "I can't see the other side, how long is it?" "It must be about 165 yards." This one, the largest, reaches 15 meters high, a building of five floors to clear. "Not only is there size but there is multiplicity. We find them everywhere on the road with deposits that are really very substantial. So yes we are quite impressed. I like to say that even our elders tell us that they have never seen this before.

In Tarentaise nine teams are thus mobilised. Sometimes an aerial reconnaissance is necessary to find the road. Here it remains at least three weeks of work, never seen before. "We're attacking the snow removal as planned, on schedule of course. However, on the other hand, the content of the snow risks and given the very important quantities of snow, the work will necessarily be longer". For in addition to avalanches are mudflows, landslides with their rock falls. This one weighs 12 tons, the agents must dynamite it. "It was an exceptional winter because of the amounts of snow and also the rains that fell very high in altitude during the winter, which gave us this mudflow." In Tarentaise the four large passes remain all closed and in front of the scale of the building sites facing the risks of avalanches still high no opening date is announced.
Translated by Sott.net