J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by J2SkiNews

Austria's young leader Sebastian Kurz has announced that the country's ski lifts will be able to re-open from Christmas Eve – but crucially only for local people, with hotels remaining closed and no "winter tourism."

That will be the position for two week, then ski tourism may resume, with hotels and restaurants re-opening, from 7th January, 2021, although it appears that depends on how things go with the pandemic.

Austria has been under intense pressure to agree to a plan from France, Germany and Italy to close ski slopes until January. It had initially rejected this noting it would cost the economy an estimated €2 billion.
Yesterday media stories hinted Austria had decided to join the EU plan after all, and today's announcement appears to be a compromise.

To further prevent incoming skiers from other countries reaching Austria for Christmas the government has introduced a 14 day quarantine on arrivals from countries with more than 100 infections per 100,000 people, which can be ended early with a negative test after five days.

A number of Austrian ski areas were blamed for the spread of the virus in February and March due to their lively, mass-participation apres-ski scenes, but Austrian resorts have been stressing they would have none of that this winter and a long-list of other measures in place to prevent pandemic spread. 10 Austrian glacier areas had been operating at the end of October when the country went into its second lockdown, some since June.

It is unclear if Austria's decision will weaken the resolve of the French and Italian governments to ease their proposed complete shut-downs of their ski areas. The populations in these regions are increasingly angry and Italian regional leaders have been suggesting something similar to the Austrian plan as a compromise.

In France ski resorts do plan to open for Christmas and new year tourism, but not to have the ski lifts operating, so it would seem more complex there to only open lifts to locals if the French government were to have a change of heart.

Other developments on Wednesday included the French government announcing the introduction of border checks with Switzerland aimed at stopping French skiers popping over the border to ski, and the regional government for Aosta passing a 'law; that allows ski areas there to open at Christmas, but it's thought this will be cancelled by the national government.

It is snowing in the Alps this morning as ski areas continue to wait to find out the details of closures over Christmas and New Year.

Ski resorts in the region have good snow-cover lying up high but on main slopes below 2000-2500m there has been little pre-season snow in the past month so even if resorts could open, it does not currently look like the snow would be good at many.

Meanwhile ski resorts and regions have been getting more active in their campaigning against government plans in France, Germany and Italy to shut them down over Christmas and new year with tens of thousands signing open petitions and protests building in Alpine towns like Moutiers. They argue they have worked to be able to open safely.

Another French government announcement is expected on, or by, December 11th but most think this is more likely to detail closure rules and, they hope, re-opening details in January, rather than being a chance to reverse the Christmas-closure plan for ski lifts and runs. However some are still clinging to that hope.

Most resorts say they intend to be open for Christmas and New Year tourism, which most say represent 20-40% of their annual business, but just not offer ski lifts up the mountain. Increasing numbers of people are reported to be ski touring but this has sparked safety concerns if ski patrol and avalanche safety measures are not operating when ski areas are closed.

Pictured above, La Rosiere this morning, below, unhappy workers in Alpe d'Huez yesterday. It is not clear if the lack of social distancing is an unfortunate error or a deliberate statement.

Thanks very much. I saw last night there is a proposal from (I think?) regional leaders in the ski areas, to allow lifts to open to second home owners and those who book overnight stays in the ski areas, ruling out day trippers, as a way to limit numbers and allow centres to open. Not sure if that carries any weight with those making the big decisions though.

It does seem a bit confused still, I suppose whilst we wait to see if the French/German/Italian plan to get all EU/Europe ski slopes closed until January is successful or not. I read the Italian PM had advised Italians not to take a Christmas ski holiday but that may not be the same as the French approach of saying ski lifts must be closed, though I know they are under the current restrictions. Is there an end date yet for the current Italian restrictions or just indefinite now? So far the French resorts say they'll open to tourists, just with no ski lifts running, not-sure what's happening with ski touring/avalanche protection there?

An estimated 100+ ski areas have now opened in North America as the 2020-21 ski season continues to gather pace in Canada and the USA.

Most of the continent's big name ski resorts from coast to coast are now open with Whistler Blackcomb among the latest to join them. Most of those that haven't yet opened plan to do so next weekend.

The ski areas are treading a fine path as the continent's pandemic cases rise and individual US states and Canadian provinces announce a variety of steps to try to suppress this. The USA has by far the world's highest infections and death numbers.

However, so far, most ski areas have been allowed to open. There appears to have been a much more coordinated approach between ski areas and health and local government bodies in North America than in the Alps with operating procedures worked on and agreed for many months in advance through the summer working with local authorities. A key difference between North America and much of Europe being a strict limit on numbers on the mountain, and on numbers using shared lifts to allow social distancing, as well as online ticket purchasing only and other measures to avoid any danger of crowds developing. Some European resorts are now moving towards that model in a bid to convince their governments they should be permitted to open.

With only a few dozen ski areas open in Switzerland and Scandinavia at present the number of areas open in North America dramatically outnumbers those in Europe as we enter December and the start of winter.

Not every North American ski area has been allowed to open however, Taos in New Mexico has had its season start delayed by state restrictions there. In British Columbia "all but essential travel" is banned so travelling to ski areas such as from Vancouver to Whistler is not permitted. Despite this many ski areas are selling out their limited number of available tickets daily in advance. All areas are emphasising the need for skiers to stick strictly to operating rules to "save the season."

Snow conditions are variable, although most areas have adequate cover. Resorts in the East had to delay opening due to it being too warm and precipitation falling as rain until a week or so back.

Base depths on the western side of the continent are now past the metre mark on upper slopes at many resorts however. In Alberta, where World cup races were due to have been staged at Lake Louise, but were moved to Europe to save racers having to travel back and forth across the Atlantic during the pandemic, but where, ironically now, races have had to be moved from Val d'Isere due to too little snow cover there.

For those with long memories to the times before the virus, you may recall Australia was first visited by horrific bush fires at the start of the year which threatened many of the country's ski areas.

Sadly one of them, Selwyn Snow Resort had its buildings, lifts and woodland almost completely destroyed as it was engulfed in flames, but its owners committed immediately to rebuilding the ski area, better than it was before.

Although there's no talk yet of a reopening date, it has been announced that progress is being made and the resort's operators have signed a contract with Doppelmayr Australia Pty Ltd for the upgrade of the New Chum Double Chair.

"New Chum is one of the signature lifts for Selwyn Snow Resort and thousands of skiers and boarders have taken their first turns using this lift. These upgrades will see New Chum continue to be a key feature of the resort for years to come," said Selwyn's General Manager Angela Murdoch.

The works to the New Chum Chair include a full conversion of all existing operating components to Doppelmayr, replacement chairs, upgraded towers, a new Variable Speed Drive to control the lift speed to assist guests, as well as the expansion and upgrade of the load and unload platforms.

French ski areas have been announcing surprise and shock at President Macron's announcement that he thought it "impossible" ski resorts could open for Christmas, but that he would take up to 10 days to make a final decision, leaving resorts and holidaymakers in limbo.

"Yesterday at 8 p.m, we were like all the French in front of our television to watch the presidential address, filled with hope. At 8:05 p.m. we had no more nails to bite. At 8:10 p.m., a little sentence by President Macron made us shudder: "Impossible to open the ski resorts for the Christmas holidays"? The dreaded scenario was seriously beginning to emerge. Stupefaction," a spokesperson for Tignes said, adding, "To be honest, we considered for a few minutes to compensate our frustration by throwing ourselves on our children's Advent calendar. But we quickly came to our senses and switched from "Everybody hurts" mode to "The show must go on!" Chocolate won't be the solution this time."

Another resort said the day before Macron's announcement the ski resorts had had a virtual meeting with Prime Minister Castex who had told them at that point that a decision would be taken in 10 days, so they had thought discussions were ongoing.

The latest development include that France, Italy and Germany appear to be uniting around a plan to keep ski areas across the EU closed until January 10th. This is thought to be opposed by quite a few EU nations, including Austria, and Germany's Chancellor Merkel has said it would be "very difficult" to pass.

Separately the French prime minister appears to have confirmed that French resorts will be unable to run their ski lifts until January, but it's not yet completely clear if that is the final world, very soon in to the 10 day period president Macron announced late on Tuesday.

In the meantime non-EU Switzerland's ski areas are currently open and their health minister is reported to have said today that he hopes they'll stay open through the Christmas and New Year holidays – so long as pandemic spread prevention protocols are maintained.

French resorts have expressed frustration that they are unable to provide answers to the thousands of callers asking if they will be open or not. Several, including Alpe d'Huez, Chamonix, La Clusaz, Les 2 Alpes and Morzine have said they plan to open their resorts to Christmas and New Year holidaymakers as normal even if the ski lifts can't run,

"Chamonix will develop a programme of free activities for non -skiers (as we do anyway when snow cover is limited over Xmas/new year). Over this festive period, we do have a lot of visitors who come for the mountain air and who do not in fact ski, so we will remain positive and adapt to the new constraints, come what may!" said a Chamonix spokesperson.

French ski resorts are likely to stay closed until January, the country's president Emmanuel Macron announced on Tuesday evening.

Addressing the nation, President Macron set out plans for re-opening the country following the end of the country's November lockdown this weekend.

The lockdown appears to have been very successful in cutting virus numbers and President Macron said measures to stop the virus returning must be strict and that ski resorts could therefore not open for Christmas and New Year.

President Macron said he thought it was "impossible" ski areas could open over Christmas and New Year but that he hoped it would be possible for resorts to open in January after the main holiday period and that he would outline plans for that within the next 10 days.

Some have interpreted the announcement of a final decision in 10 days as meaning the president might be persuaded to allow resorts to open before Christmas still and a different decision could therefore still be made, but French media reports generally seem to feel it means Christmas and New Year are out and the decision within 10 days will be the details on the January opening plan Look .

It is understood medical facilities in French ski regions have expressed fears they could be quickly overwhelmed if infection numbers surge with arrivals from across France and abroad.

Italy's prime minister has also urged Italians not to ski over Christmas and New Year. The two leaders are reported to want a pan-European approach keeping all ski areas closed in the EU in to January to avoid the danger of skiers travelling from one country with closed areas to another whether they're open, but other ski nations are reported to be less keen on the idea.