A new study on the actual size of ski areas in terms of piste length has caused controversy in some of the major Alpine nations.
The study by German ski author and cartographer Christoph Schrahe, who has been working on ski area data collection for more than 20 years, used precise terrain mapping with Google Earth and other digital services to generate comparable statistics.
The key finding was that in almost all cases, the claimed ski area runs length stat was greater than the reality, and in some cases by a very large margin.
The report opened a debate in Austrian and Swiss newspapers where resorts explained differences with claims including one that wide runs could be counted up to three times in the measurements list, as you could ski either side or down the middle on separate descents. Now resorts in Ausstria are planning to try to create a standard measuring system.
Schrahe's findings, published in a detailed report 'The 50 Biggest Ski Areas in The World,' compares ski areas on a number of criteria including lift capacity, actual trail length and actual area (compared to the stats published by resorts).
Many areas are only around 20% smaller than they officially claim according to Schrahe, but hius figures found that some, including the French-Italian Milky Way and the Swiss 4 Valleys are much smaller than they claim.
Other interesting findings are that Whistler Blackcomb is in the world top five on size, Vail in the top 10 and the 3 Valleys of the Andes around Valle Nevado in Chile in the world top 15 – the largest ski area in the southern hemisphere, and more highly placed on a global measure than previously generally realised.
To order the report, priced at 99 Euros, please contact Christoph Schrahe schrahe@ski-weltweit.de An English language version is available.