Tour operators, skiers and hoteliers are all breathing a sigh of relief this week as Austria welcomes its first substantial snowfalls of the season. Following one of the warmest Novembers in history, the signs have not been good for early skiers arriving to escape the festive rush - with concern whether the ski resorts would actually see a white Christmas at all this year.
 
Following the tornados in London last week, erratic weather conditions seem to be the norm and, despite a very early snowfall of 10 cm in places at the beginning of November, hopes of early skiing across the resorts were dashed when conditions returned to being warm and sunny.  With temperatures around 20 degrees, even the high-tech snowmaking machines used in the ski areas were unable to produce snow.

Nina Hasinski of Redpoint Holidays, based in the Ziller valley, explains how the snowfall came just in time for their first guests of the season.”The heavy snow arrived last weekend – along with our guests. We drove into the resort just as the cold weather arrived. Fortunately, this means that we haven’t needed to travel to the Glacier every day.”  Guests are offered free minibus transfers to the Hintertux Glacier which is open all year for skiing if they can’t ski at their local areas.

The cold temperatures have remained since last weekend, giving resorts the chance to operate their snow making machines, which are running day and night to get the runs open. By mixing the new falling snow with the man-made snow from the snow making machines, the piste conditions are now exceptionally good. 

Greg Moffatt, ski instructor with Redpoint has been skiing in Hochfugen in Zillertal endorses that the slopes are ready for action. “The pistes are beautifully groomed and our guests are very happy with the skiing.  The resort is opening more new runs every day and we have the pistes to ourselves, with very few people up here. We are lucky to be based in Zillertal, as Hochfugen was one of the only areas in Austria that was already open at the beginning of December.  The higher pistes, above 2000 metres, were already great to ski, so the latest proper snowfall has topped up what was already there.”

Other resorts in the Ziller Valley have opened during this week. Mayrhofen celebrated the opening of the new Ahorn Gondola, the biggest gondola in Austria carrying 160 passengers at a time.  Hochzillertal and the Zillertaler Arena opened  a restricted number of pistes and lifts on the 12th December.
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Contacts:
Redpoint Holidays: Nina Hasinski What number is best Nina?
PR contact: Alastair Campbell, 01858 445543  /  07906 349 109