“Actually, It’s Not THAT Bad” Say Major Ski Resorts in the Alps
“Actually, It’s Not THAT Bad” Say Major Ski Resorts in the Alps
Published : 04-Jan-2023 07:47
Ski resorts with higher altitude terrain, which include most of the large resorts that British skiers head to, have been aiming to counter a wave of media headlines implying that all ski areas are closed.
Conditions are certainly being badly impacted on lower altitude ski slopes and some regions like the Balkans have almost no snow, but meteorological agencies in Alpine countries have reported seasonal snowfall figures above 2,200m are actually matching the average for this early point in the season.
It's a mixed picture too, not that bad at all to lower levels in the Dolomites while a sad picture for much of the lower-lying parts of the Portes du Soleil.
Resorts with access to higher altitude terrain, which includes most of the leading international resorts, have 60-90% of their terrain open and while temperatures are warm in the afternoons, the rate of thaw is slow at high altitudes so they're not currently closing slopes very often.
In Switzerland the Blick Newspaper ran a story highlighting the fact that eight ski areas had been forced to close which turned out to refer to eight small local hills with their highest lifts at 1800m. This led to a number of leading Swiss resorts endeavouring the highlight that they are still open. Andermatt went with,
"Thankfully we are open! The current snow situation is also affecting us. We feel for everyone waiting for a load of fresh snow. We have 21 out of 22 facilities open, most of the slopes as well."
In the UK The Telegraph went with the headline "Alpine ski holidays at risk as 20C temperatures mean there's no snow" and the BBC went with "Snow shortage threatens Alps with wet winter season" reporting only on how bad things were at low altitudes, appearing to believe that using snowmaking is a new thing and ignoring any mention of the fact that most destination ski areas have most of their terrain higher up.
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