Alps get some relief but skiers await more snow

Dec 12, 2006 08:12:07

A dusting of snow at the weekend brought some relief to anxious European ski resorts, where snow- making machines were out in force when it was cold enough. Unusually warm weather in November and December delayed the start of the ski season and forced the cancellation of World Cup races at venerable resorts including Val d'Isere in France and Switzerland's St Moritz. The balmy temperatures, estimated to be the warmest for the season in the past 1,300 years in the Alpine region, have added to climate change worries, as have reports of melting glaciers and disrupted weather across the globe."Everybody is happy that it has snowed. The whole atmosphere is more relaxed, it feels less stressed although the conditions are not totally perfect yet," said tourism official Joerg Romang from the Swiss resort of Crans-Montana. At Verbier, in the Valais region, some high-altitude pistes were open and spokesman Pierre-Yves Deleze said the four-valley ski station could open soon if temperatures stayed low. The nearby resort of Villars was planning for a full opening on December 23 and has used the recent dip in temperature to make artificial snow, said marketing manager Guy Chanel. "We are not very worried. We know that the snow will come," Chanel said. "We have enough snow to work the pistes, and we can make snow now." Hiking and other activities not requiring substantial snow are also being promoted in Austria, where fake snow production is being boosted to prepare for the Christmas holiday."A lot of fake snow is being produced right now," said a spokeswoman for Austria's cable car association, estimating that more than half of the country's ski hills could be covered with fake snow if temperatures were low enough. Skiers can find more natural snow further north in Scandinavia, but conditions vary widely. Some resorts have yet to open and others have far less snow than normal. The Norwegian resort of Trysil opened on November 4, but much of the snow melted in late November. Hafjell, which hosted slalom events in the 1994 Lillehammer Winter Olympics, is struggling with no snow at the bottom of the mountain and temperatures are still too high to make artificial snow. The Swedish ski resort operator Skistar has given notice to 250 employees at its downhill skiing resort in Salen, near the Norwegian border, because of lack of snow.At Val d'Isere, where Women's World Cup ski races were canceled this month, about 50 slopes of 135 were open on Tuesday, but Jane Jacquemod of the French resort's tourism office said conditions could change quickly. "Who knows, in two days, we might see three meters of snow coming down. There is no reason to panic," she said Jacquemod. (Additional reporting by Karin Strohecker in Vienna, Kerstin Gehmlich in Paris, Niklas Pollard in Stockholm and Alister Doyle in Oslo).