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In Switzerland, ski areas are open in individual cantons, in Austria almost all across the country. Now there is a massive avalanche among the neighbors! Winter sports enthusiasts crowd the ski lifts, sometimes by the hundreds. Do you keep your distance? Impossible.
The absurd: Austria re-entered the “hard” blockade yesterday Saturday: shops, schools and restaurants are closed. At the same time, the ski areas were allowed to open on Christmas Eve, so a large number of hikers and winter sports enthusiasts traveled to the mountains.
The result: the access roads to the areas are completely blocked. On Sundays, there are miles of traffic jams on the roads to the Schladming ski area near Salzburg. “Currently it is not possible to evade,” tweeted the responsible police.
The first ski areas are closed
In Bodental and Semmering, hikers parked their cars in droves on Saturday for sledding, cross-country skiing or winter hiking. The fire brigade and medical services could no longer communicate.
The two municipalities had to pull the emergency brake: the roads will be completely closed on Sunday.
The Hinterstoder, Wurzeralm and Kasberg ski areas in Upper Austria were full Sunday afternoon and cars were turned away at the entrance to the valley. In Damüls, Vorarlberg, a crowd of people had to dissolve on Saturday, because the protective measures were not observed.
In the ski areas of Austria, a mask is required from the age of 14 to queue or on the gondolas and chair lifts. Attention is drawn to keeping distance, seemingly to no avail.
Overcrowded slopes in Switzerland
Andreas Gapp, director of Vorarlberger Seilbahnen, said about the crowd on Saturday in Damüls: “We have learned from this and will adapt our concepts as soon as possible.”
Also in Switzerland, winter sports enthusiasts flocked to the ski areas that were still open during the festive season. There are wait times of up to three hours in the Furka car transport.
In the popular Meiringen Hasliberg ski area in the Bernese Oberland, visitors keep a distance of a few centimeters. You had to wait 30 minutes at the ski lift because there were many winter sports fans away from home. (ja / SDA)
