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Canton of Lucerne
Sörenberg has to wait for the ski area to open: a round table should bring clarity
Do the elevators open before January 8? The Lucerne governing council and the ski resort operators are in talks. At the moment, there is still nothing in Sörenberg with skiing and snowboarding.
The lifts of the Sörenberg ski area, here the Rossweid double lift, are still there.
Are the ski areas of the canton of Lucerne allowed to start operating on January 2, or do they have to wait at least until January 8 or even longer? This is the question that Lucerne winter sports enthusiasts are asking these days after the Sörenberg mountain railways submitted a request for reconsideration to the cantonal government on Thursday on behalf of all winter sports companies. Entlebucher Bergbahnen requested that ski areas in the canton of Lucerne be opened immediately, or no later than January 2, after the Schwyz government announced on Thursday that its ski areas may reopen on January 2, after the intervention of the ski areas.
These are the suggested restrictions
The Sörenberg mountain railways have the following restrictions if they are allowed to open the ski lifts earlier:
– Capacity limitation to two thirds of peak days, that is, a maximum of 5500 guests in the area
– No alcohol in the ski area
– Freestyle line closure to reduce the possibility of accidents.
– The Rothorn Ski Area will be closed until further notice to reduce the risk of accidents.
– Accident prevention campaign to reduce the potential for accidents
– Orderly operation in place of uncontrolled crowds of people on the slopes and in the open tourist terrain.
The starting position of the Lucerne government is delicate. Should you give in to the pressure of the ski resorts and open them up? Or listen to the hospitals and stick to the old line, that is, not to put the elevators back into operation until January 8 at the earliest?
Theo Schnider, chairman of the Bergbahnen Sörenberg board of directors, said on request that he was in contact with Lucerne health director Guido Graf about the request he submitted on New Year’s Eve. However, the ski dispute has yet to be resolved. It is unclear if a compromise will be reached and if the ski areas can open earlier. Now there should be a round table at the beginning of the week, we are talking about Monday afternoon. That means: the Sörenberg ski area is also closed on weekends. Lucerne is the only canton in central Switzerland where skiing is impossible. “2500 guests are currently in Sörenberg. Entlebuch as an island solution in central Switzerland is completely incomprehensible and unsustainable for me, ”says Schnider. It got a lot of reactions from angry and disappointed guests. Schnider says that an optimal holiday business in Sörenberg accounts for almost a third of all winter sales. But that is now marked. He and the roughly 200 employees eagerly await their work. Schnider says:
“We would like to finally get planning security. And winter sports in the canton of Lucerne should not be isolated from the image of central Switzerland. This is where we finally need each other to think outside the box. “
Hospital bed occupation as a sticking point
The point of conflict between the government and the operators of the ski areas is the occupation of beds in the Cantonal Hospital of Lucerne. According to the Federal Office of Public Health (BAG), it is currently 66 percent. Of the total 1,071 beds, 12 percent are occupied by patients with Covid-19, 54 percent by patients who do not have Covid-19. 368 beds or 34 percent of the beds are currently empty. The occupancy rate in the intensive care unit in hospitals is 68 percent. Of the 56 beds, 41 percent (23) are occupied by Covid-19 patients, 27 percent (15) by patients who do not have Covid-19. 18 beds are available from December 30th.
For the canton of Lucerne it is clear that the high number of corona cases does not want to suffer ski accidents. The FOPH reported 311 new infections with the coronavirus for the canton of Lucerne on New Year’s Eve, on Wednesday there were 269, on Tuesday 255. The president of the district of Lucerne, Reto Wyss, told Radio Pilatus and Tele 1 on Friday that the situation in the canton of Lucerne did not coincide with the others. Compare the cantons of central Switzerland. Wyss: “We are not doing well in terms of numbers. For every 100,000 inhabitants, the canton of Lucerne has twice as many people infected by corona as the canton of Obwalden. The situation in Lucerne is not very good. Schnider: “Let’s be honest, playing an outdoor winter sport is definitely not a bigger driver of the pandemic than a shopping experience at a center. People don’t stay at home looking after their skis in the basement, they just move to the surrounding sports facilities, where protection concepts are unnecessarily strained there. We have lost reality here. “
Schnider says that Lucerne continues to suffer more serious ski accidents and that the canton itself also suffers the economic damage due to its incomprehensible isolated solution strategy. Also, there is the relatively modest number of ski accidents in Entlebuch that a hospital does not push to the limit. Every winter season, around 25 moderately or severely injured people are hospitalized from Sörenberg.
Video: Tele 1
