Europe ponders shutting down ski industry

[urungus]

Europe at odds over plan to ban Christmas ski holidays amid pandemic

Germany, Italy and France in favour of resort closures but Austria and Switzerland fear economic damage

www.theguardian.com

 

[Killingtime]

Yeah, just saw this on a news channel. They were talking about scrapping the whole ski season.

 

[Nick]

that's crazy to me.

 

[njdiver85]

Really so stupid. That line could be spaced better if the people managing it did their job. That parking lot should be cleared and used for line spacing. Assuming a gondola, keep windows open and only one party to a car. If that place gets shut down over a picture like that, they deserve it.

 

[urungus]

Really so stupid. That line could be spaced better if the people managing it did their job. That parking lot should be cleared and used for line spacing. Assuming a gondola, keep windows open and only one party to a car. If that place gets shut down over a picture like that, they deserve it.

They are talking about shutting down skiing in all of Europe, not just that one place (Tyrolean glacier)

 

[kingslug]

Ever been there..they don't have lines..they have stampedes.

 

[Zermatt]

Ever been there..they don't have lines..they have stampedes.

Yep, some of the most technologically advanced countries and they can't line up.

 

[andrec10]

And they laugh at us!

 

[kingslug]

Its weird as these countries are pretty strict about almost everything. You can't even pass a car inspection if you have rust on it..and cross the street the wrong way and you'll get yelled at by old woman..this..I know.

 

[RISkier]

Some of the early outbreaks last Spring were traced to ski resorts. There were stories written about Ischgl in Austria and I know several Italian resorts were also early spreaders. It's easy to understand why they would be hotbeds of spread if you've been there. In some cases there is little or no skiing down to the resorts. So you may begin your day by riding a cable car that takes you to a station where you get on other lifts. And they were packing folks in. There are many (usually relatively small) mountain huts where folks stop for lunch; and usually there would be no norm against sitting with strangers. If there are two persons at a 4 seat table, and you're a party of two, you would typically be invited to sit with them. And in many places there's lots of folks packed into apres ski venues. Of course I'm generalizing, but In many places it would be very difficult to practice any kind of reasonable physical distancing while moving even a reasonable number of folks up the mountains. I'm not sure that 25% capacity would provide safe distance. It's hard for me to imagine they could operate at a reasonable capacity and not be sources of spread. Take a look at Chamoni as an example; it has several unconnected areas of skiing and pretty much everyone rides buses from town to the area where they want to ski. Or Lech in Austria where most folks get up the mountain on 1 of two cable cars. I don't think there's any village level skiing in Mayerhofen. Some of the higher purpose built resorts. might be better equipped to manage crowds.

 

[kingslug]

I was at St Anton last February..it was a zoo. Its one of the biggest in the world but when massive snowfall shuts down 80% of the lifts..and there are about 87 I think..it turned the Base area into a free for all. Only 3 of the main lifts were running. An forget about the Apres. Insane. But it was the best and scariest I have ever done. Highly recommended..

 

[BenedictGomez]

Some of the early outbreaks last Spring were traced to ski resorts. There were stories written about Ischgl in Austria

All Gondolas from the bottom.