Although there is a lack of snow and most resorts are not in full operating mode, people are heading for the hills. Traffic came to a stand-still yesterday in the direction of Spindleruv Mlyn as new ski tourists drove in to set up for the New Year’s holiday week, or try and ski for a day. Police were even forced to close the roads leading to the lifts for about an hour. The afternoon saw peak traffic flow with the situation on the roads moving very slowly until about 16:00 when traffic started to flow again.
Spindleruv Mlyn, Pec pod Snezkou and Cerna Hora currently have the best ski conditions in the Krkonose Mountains. With the current two week holiday break period being the busiest of the year in the mountains, it’s no surprise that the convergence of thousands of people trying to get the best conditions caused a major traffic jam in the area.
Many resorts only opened on Sunday, for example Cerny Dul and Velka Upa. Some resorts are not planning on opening until after the New Year celebrations as snow conditions are not allowing the pistes to be operational. Those operating are not operating at full tilt. Ski Resort Cerna Hora-Pec has only 16Km operating out of 44Km. Spindleruv Mlyn has 8.5Km operating out of 25Km of slopes.
Some other areas in the country also saw snow for example Jeseniky Mountains, and the Bila Resort in the Beskydy Mountains reported that Sunday was a record day, over 3000 visitors. For a resort situated on a small winding road, in an unpopulated area between Slovakia and Moravia, that is a big turnout. Your correspondent was there 6 years ago on a snowy Monday and there were about 8 fellow skiers (not counting the bar hut which was packed) on the lifts.
As the global warming rhetoric gains statistical materiality, December has been a warm month, the ski business may be getting hard to plan. There have been some recent promises of snow but with few exceptions, skiers in the Czech Mountains are increasingly taking to hiking.
