Kitzbühel First Non-Glacier Ski Area Open in the Alps

FacebookTwitter

Kitzbühel First Non-Glacier Ski Area Open in the Alps

Started by J2SkiNews in Ski News

Login
To Create or Answer a Topic
Kitzbühel First Non-Glacier Ski Area Open in the Alps

J2SkiNews posted 13-Nov



Kitzbühel has become the first ski area to open in the Alps that doesn't rely on a glacier beneath the snow, although for the first week the slopes are only open to teams for training and practice races.

Instead of a glacier, it has used snow-farming - re-using snow stockpiled through summer from last winter then spreading it back out on the slopes in Autumn - to create a run up on Resterkogel, some of the region's highest slopes.

Conditions were described as "like full-on winter" by one skier there this weekend, describing hard-packed conditions in the morning softening through the day.

The slopes are only open to professional teams training and competing in practice events this weekend when fellow Austrian ski area Lech Zurs was due to have been hosting men's and women's FIS World Cup Parallel Slalom races, but these have been cancelled for lack of snow there.

Although Kitzbühel is the first non-glacier ski area to open in Austria, its opening is a month later than it had been in recent winters before the pandemic. The resort was highlighted as a likely early-victim of climate change in a UN report published in the early 'noughties. Since then it started opening its slopes in early October using snow farming, then making an effort to complete a nearly 7 month, 200+ day season to the following May.

When asked whether the change was due to the pandemic, the warm autumn, high energy costs, another reason, or a combination of one or more of these, the lift company did not respond.

The Resterkogel slopes are due to open to the public next weekend when several other Austrian ski centres, Obergurgl and Obertauern, in their cases opening thanks to high altitude, if not glacier slopes, are also due to open taking the number of centres open in Austria back into double figures.

Picture credit: O Kern
www  The Snow Hunter

Not a Member?

FREE Snow Reports by e-mail.

Save on Ski Hire

Save up to 50%

+5% for 4+ Ski Packs

+10% for 10+ Ski Packs

Discount Ski Hire

7th day Free on selected dates

Ski Hire Shops in Lech, Kitzbühel and Obergurgl-Hochgurgl.

SkiSet

March 27, 2023

Significant Fresh Snow is forecast for 15 Ski Resorts in Austria, including Alpbach, Biberwier, Ehrwald, Filzmoos, Fügen, Kössen, Obertauern and Seefeld.

Forum Listing Key

Unread Post
Hot Topic
Sticky (important)
Announcement

The views and opinions presented in the J2Ski Forums are solely those of their respective authors and do not represent those of J2Ski Ltd. Objectionable Content may be notified by sending a Private Message to Admin.

J2Ski logo J2Ski logo