One of the world’s steepest groomed slopes which opened last winter at Glacier 3000 near Gstaad in Switzerland has been forced to close after major cracks appeared in its snow surface.

The cracks appeared after a rapid and sustained rise in temperatures across the Alps with the freezing point moving high above 3,000m, something that has rarely happened before in January.

“Unfortunately we have had to temporarily close the Black Wall. The recent rise in temperatures has made the snow layer unstable on an already warm, slippery ground. Our track maintenance leader has never seen this in his 30 years career,” a statement from the centre reads, adding, “We’re looking forward to the return of winter and more snow to be able to reopen.”

The Black Wall run opened last winter after the centre dug a 265m long tunnel to provide access to the descent in the Pierres Pointes sector.  The 3km (nearly 2 miles) long black run that drops away from the end of the tunnel at a pitch of up to 41 degrees has a huge 1,000m+ vertical descent down to Pillon (1546m) in the valley below.