Winter in the Time of Global Warming
Planning in late summer for an early December ski trip in Europe you have to think about glaciers. There are a number of possibilities: Zermatt in Switzerland, Cervinia in Italy, and Hintertux, Kitzsteinhorn, and Stubai in Austria. Glacier skiing used to be confined to summer and pre-season skiing, but with global warming, the situation is changing and if you want to be sure of snow in early December, it has to be on a glacier.
We chose to go to the Stubai glacier in Austria because it’s the glacier with the most ski runs and it’s just a short ride up the hill from the Innsbruck airport. There are 35 downhill ski runs between the top stations at over 3,100 meters all the way down to the mid-station at 2,300 meters. The lifts are of a mix of gondolas and covered chair lifts with a few T-bars for shorter runs. We bought our lift tickets on line and took advantage of the 20% discount offered for advanced purchases.
Glacier skiing is usually not ski-in-ski out. We stayed in the town of Neustift, which is 25 minutes from the Innsbruck airport. The lift station for the glacier is a further 20 minutes up the road, and is serviced by a free ski bus every fifteen minutes or so. For convenience we chose to drive. Neustift is a typical Austrian ski town complete with ski shops, restaurants and shops selling all the local handicrafts. We stayed in an apartment at Sportpension Elisabeth which was more than comfortable, with a small kitchen to prepare dinner on the nights we stayed in, and with the option for breakfast in the pension’s breakfast room
Everything at the Austrian ski areas is tip-top: moderately priced self-service restaurants, full-service restaurants, inside areas reserved for those who bring their own food, cubby-hole storage to store your pack while you’re out skiing, escalators to avoid climbing stairs, charging stations for your phone, and snow, real snow. Oh, and don’t worry if you’ve forgotten something down in the valley gloves, goggles, a helmet, skis, poles, whatever, there are Intersport shops at every lift station.\
The weather in December is not always accommodating. We had four snowy days and three days of bright sunshine. The skiing was great, even on the days we couldn’t see much past the next turn. The new snow made up for what we couldn’t see. Temperatures were -2 to -8 Centigrade, depending on the altitude, but with new materials for ski outfits these days, such temperatures are not uncomfortable. The sun did come out for us during our last days, and the skiing was super. While skiing on a glacier may seem fraught with black diamond rated trails, the reality is just the opposite. For the most part the trails are rated blue with a few reds. We encountered no ice and enjoyed cruising along on the runs which were meticulously groomed after the snow stopped falling.
This was a multi-generational adventure with my son, some grandchildren and spouses. All in all, we greatly enjoyed our early December glacier skiing. Snow covered pine trees, snowy white landscapes, skiing in the new snow, all reminded me of Winter’s Past.
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Enjoyed your article. I live just south of Hobart William Smith College and my granddaughter graduated last spring from William Smith. Their ski club did well in competitions at least the last few years my granddaughter was in school. I follow their soccer teams primarily and have been a supporter since knowing one of their coaches Fiffi Steinrotter(retired) also a ski racer from Germany. I’ve been skiing 60 years.
Loved this article, having skied Stubai in the middle of March 2007. That year was the least amount of snow in fifty years in the Innsbruck region. Still the skiing was Very good on the glacier. Having skied out of Zermatt two years earlier under snow drought conditions, I started telling my non-skiing friends about how my experience with climate change at ski resorts in Europe and my usual ski hills in the Pacific Northwest, Idaho and Montana. This year some of eastern Washington ski hills are just now starting to get enough snow to open up all their trails. Still it seems most of the non-skiing friends don’t believe that climate change is a real thing.
Good article, helpful to someone who is considering skiing in Europe. I skied in St. Anton in 1983. The whole US Ski Team was staying in our hotel as they were holding World Cup Races while we were there. Pretty darn fun though it is a LONG way to travel to ski…..I was living in Hawaii at the time!