First blast of the season (and a warning!)

Just back from a first blast of the season in Saas-Fee! I've never skied in December before and I have to say I liked it. Snow conditions were good - snowing when we arrived and snowing when we left. Mainly cold but temperatures were rising when we left. Hotels and restaurants were gearing up for the season and there was a fair number of Brits getting some early season snow. The resort was very much familiar territory (last visit April 22) but this time we were taking advantage of the excellent value Magic Pass. There was one major probleme, though. During the summer, a large chunk of glacier fell off below Felskinn, near the tunnels. This has closed at least two lifts and all of the blue runs above Morenia. This has severely limited options with just the village lifts and Panorama for for 'true blue' skiers. I was told this area is unlikely to open at all this season. Disappointing that there has been no publicity about this. There has been one piste improvement with the previously horrible Run 10 redirected down a slightly easier and less narrow pitch.

Saas Fee's ski area has been shrinking for years, several pistes have literally disappeared since the 1980s. The glacier has shrunk considerably in both area and thickness in recent years and as 2022 has been the hottest year since records began a lot more ice has been lost than usual.

It seems that a hole has appeared in the ice just outside the tunnel that leads to piste 4 (Egginer) that they say will take 10m of snow to fill. As it is shown as open on the interactive piste map, I expect that the sections below the Morenia chair lift top station are open. They weren't able to open piste 6 (Mörane) at all last season due to lack of snow and I don't think they were able open the Egginerjoch drag lift because of the danger from rock fall. The path from Felskinn to the Britannia hut has had to be closed because the thawing permafrost has increased the danger of rock fall.

The snow situation in Canton Valais isn't very good at the moment, we only have 60-90% of the long-term average amount of snow. A warm front just before Christmas brought around 50cm of new snow above 2300m, but it rained lower down. The snowfall level is forecast to drop from 1800m to 1200m this evening and another 10 to 20cm of snow is forecast.

The only run above Morenia that was open last week was 5a; the rest were closed due to the glacier crack. The Egginerjoch and Mittaghorn lifts remain closed. It's a very limited picture and no-one expects 10 metres of snow to come to the rescue!

Buried deep within the Saas Fee website there is a press release dated 06. Dec. that lists the lifts and pistes they were intending to open on 08. December https://www.saas-fee.ch/fr/medien/pressemitteilungen/65-pistenkilometer-fuer-wintersportfans it doesn't look like they were intending to open the blue runs in the Morenia sector in the run up to Christmas.

There isn't much snowmaking equipment in the Morenia sector, so they are largely dependent on natural snow. The piste served by the Mittaghorn lift is a natural snow piste, so they can't open it until there is enough snow, and as I mentioned in my post above, the Egginerjoch lift might be closed because of rock fall danger. It could also be closed because there isn't enough snow.

From what I can see the glacier is now some distance below the tunnel exit. There is a photo on a German forum that shows the current situation https://www.alpinforum.com/forum/download/file.php?id=220813&sid=16d22fdfcd48dae6446aaf044d5d5939&mode=view Sass Fee certainly isn't going to get 10 metres of snow; in an average year, it gets around 6 metres at 2500 m. If there is not an easy fix for the loss of ice at the tunnel exit, they will probably abandon that section of the Egginer piste. The tunnel badly needs renovating, so it would be much easier to just brick it up. The Saas Fee lift company was taken over by the Schröcksnadel Group in 2018. It operates several ski lift companies in Austria and is not known for investing any more money than it absolutely needs to. In 2021/22 they invested CHF 8.1m in Saas Fee, CHF 4.3m of this was spent on relining the tunnel from the top of the Alpin Express to the Metro Alpin and installing a travellator.

If you plan to come to Switzerland again later in the season, it might be an idea to keep an eye on the electricity situation. Switzerland doesn't generate enough electricity to meet its needs during the winter and has to import electricity from neighbouring countries. The Swiss Federal Office of Energy has set up a dashboard: https://www.energiedashboard.admin.ch/dashboard The current supply situation is at level 2. If it reaches level 4, the ski lifts will be forced to close.

And the lift company's big plan is to renovate the Hannig gondola at vast expense to serve a few walking trails and a toboggan track. Absolute madness when the ski area requires more investment (the travellator is very welcome!).

We do plan to return this season as we have Magic Passes! I will be asking for some money back if the electric goes off!

The situation regarding the Hannig gondola is a bit complicated. The Saas Fee lift company initially said that they were not prepared to invest any money in its replacement as there was no possibility of a return, but they would operate it if the locals provided the finance. After the locals managed to raise CHF 3m via a crowd funding action the lift company said that they would lend the new company that will own the lift CHF 8m. This was announced after the lift company announced a profit of CHF 7.1m.

The Saas Fee lift company plans to invest CHF 100m in the ski area over the next 10 years, this will cover the cost of the refurbishment of the Metro Alpin, the replacement of the Längfluh cable car with an extension of the Spielboden gondola, the expansion of snowmaking and the implementation of projects to generate renewable energy to cover around 80% their electricity requirements.

If the ski lifts are forced to close by the government it is very unlikely that you will get any money back.

I was joking about the power-cut refunds!

That's all good to read; the Metro Alpin is looking its age (as is the Alpin Express) and an extension to the Spielboden gondola would be good. However, several people with a vested interest in the success of the ski area have told me the real need is for a major lift from above the Dorflifte and the Felskinn station to the Morenia chairlift. This would, they say, give some bad-weather skiing through the trees etc. From what you say, unlikely to happen in my ski lifetime!