Still No Snow in the Alps

I've just returned for a quick trip to the Alps, to take a look at a trio of resorts being offered in an innovative mix-and-match package assembled by a new tour operator. Baobab Expeditions has an interesting concept for skiers who have a week or two and want to sample three or more resorts. The Ski Expeditions program is offered both in Colorado and in the Alps. The preview trip of three European resorts in three days (plus travel time) -- long enough to affirm that there still is no snow in the Alps -- left time to explore a bit and to indulge in the wonderful food of the Alpine region. I'll add a post to http://culinary-colorado.blogspot.com/ within a couple of days to share my dining experiences, which I hope will be sufficiently mouthwatering to convince you that European resorts have a lot offer, even when there is no snow. But for now, here's the skinny on the sad state of skiing across the pond.

I skied St. Moritz on Tuesday, December 5. Of the resort's 72 lifts, just six were operating. Four were running on a massif called the Corvatsch -- a beginner platterpull beside the bottom station of the cable car, the first stage of the cable car below which three runs were open, a four-place bubble quad chairlift (top photo, right) serving two intermediate runs that come together to form one run and one T-bar on a short teaching slope. These runs are snowmaking-equipped, even on the glacier, so that when a spot had been scraped off, glacial ice showed through. Beside the runs were rocks, rocks and more rocks, plus tufts of grass and trees at lower elevations. The exhilaration of early-season skiing was tempered by the discouraging picture just off-trail.

The skiing was marginal by most measures, but Alpine panoramas nevertheless are magnificent. So that visitors could enjoy the scenery, no matter what the snow conditions were like, the second stage of the cable car was operating only for foot passengers who wanted to enjoy the panorama of sun-kissed peaks stretched out to the horizon (middle photo, right) and lunch in the summit cafeteria or restaurant. A couple of lifts and runs -- even fewer than on the Corvatsch -- were also open on the Corviglia/Piz Nair, but I didn't ski there.


It was pouring in St. Moritz on Wednesday, and hopeful skiers and boarders headed to the Corvatsch lusting for powder. There was snow, indeed. It was blinding, goggle-coating snow that helped the cover but wasn't a lot of run to ski in. And in the end, it didn't seem to make a difference in the amount of terrain that was deemed skiable.

The next stop was across the border in Livigno, Italy, reached by a one-lane tunnel through the mountains. Of the 33 lifts, three were operating, one short surface lift and two chairlifts, betweem them serving two very modest ribbons of snow (bottom photo, right) laid down down on a sloping meadow just off the village's main drag. So much snowmaking effort had resulted in so little cover that it was not even possible to ski between the loading areas of the two lifts, which are just steps apart. There was also a small moving carpet for children at the bottom of the easiest of the two runs, but I don't know whether that is counted in the census of 33. The cover was so pathetic that skiing was free.

Many people who come to Livigno at this time of year are because they are Milanese who come for the duty-free shopping and don't care whether or not there is snow. The long, thin town has charming little hotels and guest houses, restaurants and shops, the vast majority of which sell the same brands of tobacco products, cosmetics, perfumes and booze. It's a little like a cross between a quaint Alpine village and an international airport terminal.

The last stop on Thursday, December 7 was St. Anton-am-Arlberg, Austria, the brightest star in a fabled galaxy of resorts that had hoped to crank up its lifts the following day. It's now the 9th, and according to the slope reports on St. Anton's website, nothing is running yet.

Hoteliers and resort officials publicly say that "it's still early" and speak optimistically about the season's snow prospects, but there are clouds of doubt in their eyes even as they try to put a good spin on the gloomy situation. BBC World ran a feature while I was there indicating that every year for the past 15 has been warmer than the previous one in western Europe, and that this fall has been the warmest in something like 1,300 years, according to an austrian meteorologist named Reinhard Boehm. Other reports, including a wire-service story that appeared in Ski Racing, confirm the same thing.

The U.S. Rockies also experienced an unseasonably warm, dry fall, but snowfall has been sufficient since late November to launch the ski season with enough cover. The Alps might get snow any day now (though the forecast is not encouraging), and the West could experience fewer storms after a good start. I'm rooting for good snow everywhere. I love Baobab Expeditions' concept and just hope there's enough snow in the Alps to give it a good shot at succeeding.