J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by SwingBeep

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.

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.

Currently traveling from Basel to Frankfurt on an ICE train, there are signs on the carriage doors saying that you can only travel if you wear a mask and there are frequent announcements saying that passengers must wear an FFP2 mask during the entire journey. Everybody I have seen on the train so far is wearing a mask.

If you look at the DBB website https://www.bahn.com/en/booking-information/corona?dbkanal_007=teaserBlock_2-3_link_reisencorona it says that "People who cannot wear a mask for medical reasons are exempt from doing so. DB's train crews are, within the scope of privacy regulations, entitled to ask passengers to produce a medical certificate as proof of exemption. Therefore, please always carry an appropriate medical certificate with you."

Unless the law changes in the meantime it looks like you will have to obtain a medical certificate from your doctor.

There are direct flights from Dublin to Verona, from there you can get to the resorts on the Sellaronda using public transport, shared transfer (coach) or private transfer (taxi). Südtirol- Alto Adige Bus https://www.altoadigebus.com/ operates shared and private transfers.

95% of the pistes in the Madonna di Campiglio/ Pinzolo/ Folgàrida/ Marilleva ski area are equipped with snow cannons. In some years there are large falls of snow at the beginning of the season so you might get lucky, if not you will be mainly skiing on manmade snow, assuming that temperatures are low enough to make some.

There is a slight possibility that the start of the season could be delayed due to restrictions on the use of electricity, so I would wait a while before booking anything.

According to reports in the Swiss press Zermatt is going to close its summer skiing area from 29. July until further notice.

Saas Fee has announced that at the start of the summer ski season on July 16. only the Allalin drag lifts 2 and 3 will open, Allalin 4 and 5 will remain closed due to insufficient snow. This means that about half of the 20 km of pistes that comprise the summer ski area will remain closed.

Access to lifts will be restricted to race teams with a valid piste reservation and corresponding team number. Lift tickets will not be sold to recreational skiers. The situation will be reassessed on August 14.

I don't think many people realise the amount of effort required to make the glacier ski areas safe.



If they don't find all the crevasses it can have very serious consequences, fortunately in this case the driver escaped unhurt.