J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by SwingBeep

Snow farming is the process of piling snow into heaps and covering it up in order to preserve it for the following season. The snow depots are the covered heaps of snow. In 2018, the cost of storing a cubic metre of snow was reckoned to be about the same as making a cubic metre, so it's likely to be cheaper than making snow now due to the increase in electricity prices. There is some information in English here: https://www.snowfarming.ch/informationen/

According to https://skiracing.com/zermatt-cervinia-races-scheduled-to-open-2023-24-speed-season/ the snow depots that have been built on the Gran Becca race course are made of artificial snow; see "New year, new strategies". So they are in a much better position to run the race than they were last year; it would be very embarrassing if they couldn't run it this year and might result in the FIS removing it from the calendar.

Your welcome! It depends where you look; most of the downhill race course on the Swiss side is either on a north facing slope or shaded by a ridge, so it looks to be in pretty good shape at the moment. There is a lot less snow on the Italian part of the course, which lower and gets sun for most of the day. The area around Testa Grigia also gets lots of sun so the snow there melts pretty quickly in summer.

This year the races are scheduled to take place a couple of weeks later than they were last year, so there is a better chance of them being able to make enough snow. They built 5 snow depots at the end of last season; last year they only built 2, so they might have enough snow to cover the course even if it's too warm to run the snow cannons.

Sounds like they are replicating the Jungfraujoch Snow Fun Park https://www.jungfrau.ch/en-gb/jungfraujoch-top-of-europe/snow-fun-park/ which seems to be popular with Asian tourists.



It would be interesting to know where they are getting the snow from, these days it's nearly all gone from Testa Grigia by the end of July.



The Alpine Crossing is mainly intended for American and Asian tourists who fly in to Milan / Turin in order to visit Florence, Siena, San Gimignano, Pisa etc. before going on to Paris. The idea is to get them to travel to Paris via Cervinia and Zermatt.

The infrastructure that forms Cervinia's part of the Alpine Crossing is quite old and is badly in need of updating. In 2019 Cervino SpA held an architectural competition for the redevelopment of the area and buildings around Testa Grigia, the competition was won by POLICREO S.r.l. http://www.policreo.it/case-studies/show/concorso-di-idee-plateau-rosa it will be interesting to see if it ever gets built.

At the beginning of August Aosta Sera reported that an invitation to tender for the design phase of 2 new lifts to run from Cervinia to Testa Grigia has closed https://aostasera.it/notizie/turismo/si-apre-la-fase-di-progettazione-delle-nuove-funivie-fra-breuil-e-plateau-rosa/ The tender documents have been uploaded to the Cervinia website https://www.cervinia.it/dialogo-competitivo-per-laggiudicazione-della-progettazione-ed-esecuzione-della-nuova-linea-funiviaria-breuil-cervinia-plan-maison-plateau-rosa-c-i-g-9857077d41-c-u-p-h21c23000510009

In an effort to smarten Cervinia up a bit, the carpark next to the cable car / gondola station has been tarmacked. Unfortunately, there is still no word on what they are planning to do with the burnt-out shell of the old cable car station / La Gran Baita hotel.

The Swiss Railways luggage transfer service will probably take too long, if you dropped of your luggage at a station or had it picked up today it wouldn't arrive at your destination until the day after tomorrow. The service is mainly aimed at people who live in Switzerland.

Due to how the taxi business is regulated in Switzerland / Canton Bern you will likely have to use a local taxi firm for a transfer from Grindelwald to Zermatt. The road journey from Grindelwald to Zermatt is a bit complicated, the shortest route involves using the car train from Kandersteg to Goppenstein https://www.bls.ch/en/fahren/autoverlad/tickets/tickets-pkw-kandersteg-goppenstein and the road from Täsch to Zermatt requires a permit, which costs CHF 56- p.a. so you might have to change to a local taxi in Täsch or catch the shuttle train from Täsch to Zermatt. If you take a taxi to Zermatt you will dropped off in Spiss at the northern end of the village, from there you will have to take an electric taxi to your accommodation.

It might be worth looking at taking a taxi from Grindelwald to Speiz, a mainline the train from there to Visp and either the BVZ train or a taxi from there to Zermatt.

The bus stop at Stalden railway station (Stalden Saas) is currently in service, there is a 1-minute walk from the railway platform to the bus stop. The only stop on the Stalden – Saas Fee route that is not in service is Stalden Illas, which is closed due to the construction of the long-awaited Stalden bypass. This does not affect journeys to and from Saas Fee.

LOTA wrote:Visp has a reputation of being a pretty utilitarian place but I've only changed buses and trains there.

That's perhaps the nicest thing anybody has ever said about Visp! Visp is an industrial town; it's the home of several chemical / pharmaceutical manufacturers that make, among other things, the active ingredient in slug pellets and the vaccine substance for the Moderna Covid-19 vaccine. As it receives lots of business travellers, you might find it difficult to find accommodation there, and traveling to Saas Fee or Zermatt every day would be tedious.

If you don't want to stay in Saas Fee or Zermatt, you could stay in Saas Grund or Täsch. If you decide to move from Saas Fee to Zermatt or vice versa, you only need to travel to Stalden, from there you can catch a bus to Saas Fee or a train to Zermatt.

There are lots of EVs in the alps, in 2022 the Tesla Model Y was the best-selling car in Switzerland, the Model 3 was the 5th best seller and the Škoda Enyaq was the 7th. Apart from the palaver involved in re-charging during the journey you should be fine.

There has been a marked increase in average temperatures in recent years.



For the most part it doesn't get anywhere near as cold as it used to do. Where I live the grass is still green, the catkins have come out and the daffodils are poking through. 20 years ago, the ground would have been frozen hard during January.

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.