Mürren Uses Snow Farming To Guarantee November Opening
Mürren Uses Snow Farming To Guarantee November Opening
Published : 11-Oct-2023 06:35
Switzerland's car-free village of Mürren is the highest ski resort in the Bernese Oberland at 1650m, but it's taking no chance with early season snow cover and using the same technique as Finland's Levi and Ruka among others to ensure they have at least some snow from day one of winter: snow farming.
The resort's snow-farming efforts began in the first full winter of the pandemic, 2020-21, when it stockpiled 110,000 cubic metres of snow through the summer. Two depots in the Engetal area of the slopes, covered and camouflaged with white membranes, now store 150,000m² of compacted snow.
At the end of this month the snow will be recycled to piste no.11 ensuring an early start to the resort's season in November, which continues right through to May.
Winter 23-24 sees the centenary celebrations for the world's oldest alpine ski racing club, the Kandahar, which was founded in Mürren on 30 January 1924 and still has its HQ there. The Club took its name from the Victorian military hero Lord Roberts of Kandahar, donor of a prestigious Downhill race trophy.
Kandahar members include the first women's World Champion Esmé Mackinnon, the first British skier to win a World Cup race, Dave Ryding, who triumphed in the Slalom at Kitzbühel in January 2022, and Jasmin Taylor winner of 35 World Cup and World Championship medals for Telemark.
The Kandahar's founding father Arnold Lunn made Mürren the cradle of Alpine ski racing. His campaign for recognition of 'British rules' Downhill and Slalom racing bore fruit when the International Ski Federation (FIS) invited the British to organise alpine skiing's first World Championship at Mürren in February 1931.
This winter will also see the 80th staging of the Inferno race on 27 January, 2024. The world's largest and longest mass-participation downhill, the race was first contested by 17 Kandahar members in 1928. Today it sees 1800 amateur racers tackle a gruelling 15km course from Schilthorn to Lauterbrunnen.
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