2023-09-23 15:33:09
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The Sölden glacier is a major construction site. © Greenpeace – Mitja Kobal
The Sölden Glacier is literally being rebuilt for the FIS ski race in October. Conservationists speak of a “catastrophe” for the environment.
Sölden/Mittelberg – It’s hard to believe: While bathers are doing their laps in the warm bathing lakes of the Alps after the foehn days of the past few days, there is a lot of construction activity on the Austrian glaciers. The opening of the ski season in Tyrol is imminent. However, keeping the glaciers, which are melting ever faster, in good condition for skiing requires ever greater effort and severe interference with nature. To the horror of conservationists.
In Sölden the glacier has retreated – now excavation and blasting are taking place
In Sölden, for example, preparing the Rettenbachferner for skiing is becoming increasingly difficult. The glacier tongue has retreated further again. That’s why excavators have been coming in since April to clear away rocks and ice for the FIS Ski World Cup at the end of October so that the slope can be used.
Apparently there were also explosions. Ursula Bittner, spokeswoman for Greenpeace Austria, is horrified: “In order to straighten the road for the Ski World Cup and maintain its width, it has obviously been decided to completely remove the affected part of the glacier and fill it back up with rubble and artificial snow. The current destruction of nature on the Rettenbach Glacier is a catastrophe.”
Bittner continues: “In times of climate crisis, which is driving the melting of glaciers, it is crazy to do something like that.” The dredging and blasting interferes with the ecosystem and endangers biodiversity. “We are losing the glacier, it cannot be restored.”
The lift operator speaks of normal renovation work
Jakob Falkner from the Söldener Bergbahnen assured the news agency WHAT, it is normal renovation work due to the retreat of the glacier. This work would only affect the existing slope area.
Greenpeace would act populistically and maliciously misuse the facts, said Falkner: “We are not the ones causing this situation. We are small players. Nature does what it wants with us.” The state of Tyrol announced that the state of Tyrol has given approval for the implementation of various renovation measures, including in the melting areas within the glacier area.
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The ski season in Pitztal starts next Saturday (September 23rd)
At an altitude of over 3,000 meters, there is also hectic activity on the Wildspitze in the neighboring Pitztal: the rest of the previous season’s snow, which had been pushed together into depots in the spring, is hidden under white plastic tarpaulins. Now the white gold of the Pitztal is being spread out and rolled on the slopes again using snow groomers. The method is called snow farming.
The slopes on the Pitztal Glacier are already being prepared. © webcam pitztaler-gletscher.at
On Saturday, skiing starts at seven o’clock in Austria’s highest ski area, where you can initially ski down from 3,440 meters up to 2,840 meters. From the Wildspitzbahn mountain station you can then ski down to the Gletscherexpress mountain station on two two-kilometer-long slopes.
The lift operation will be stopped at 1 p.m. due to the heat
For the time being, work ends at 1 p.m. every day. “In the afternoon the snow becomes too sulky in the sun,” reports Bernhard Füruter from the Pitztaler Gletscherbahn. The decision to prepare the runway was made at short notice, reports Füruter. “We start at the top in September and then gradually work our way down to the valley.”
Anyone going skiing in Pitztal this weekend? “It’s mainly team training that takes place there,” says Füruter. But preparing the slopes is becoming more difficult every year. In the past you could even ski in the Pitztal all summer long. Füruter: “That hasn’t been possible for 30 years.”
There was no summer ski break in Hintertux
The other glacier ski areas in Austria are also in the starting blocks: in Kaunertal and Ötztal it starts a week later, in the Stubaital on October 6th and on the Kitzsteinhorn on October 14th. It says there was no ski break in the summer at the Hintertux Glacier.
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