The Austrian Alpine Club Calls for Urgent Action to Protect Glaciers

16th October 2023

Last modified on October 20th, 2023

There are plans for the Pitztal Glacier ski area to be re-developed.

Three glaciers, the Hangenden Ferner, the Karlesferner and the Mittelbergferner, could be developed for skiing.

There are also plans for expansion at Kaunteral.

“Such large-scale projects are simply no longer appropriate in times of climate crisis; the sensitive high mountains must not become a permanent construction site,” said a statement from the Austrian Alpine Club.

“Now we still have the chance to prevent destructive new developments.

“We need a rethink towards nature-friendly tourism instead of further overexploitation of nature.”

Pitztal, Tirol, Austria. Image © PlanetSKI

See here for  earlier PlanetSKI stories on the future of the Austrian glaciers:

• Austrian glaciers shrinking faster than ever
• Austrian glaciers likely to melt by end of the century

The Austrian Alpine Club also criticises some summer works that are carried out in existing glacier ski areas such as the Rettenbach glacier in the Austrian resort of Soelden.

“These are measures that destroy nature and waste resources and are carried out in the summer in order to then be able to resume skiing in the fall – far too early,” said Liliana Dagostin, the manager of the Spatial Planning and Nature Conservation Department of the Austrian Alpine Club.

Stubai is an area that has seen some expansion with the building of the Gamsgarten II reservoir lake and a brand-new snowmaking system run on renewable energy.

It holds over 300,000m³ of water at an altitude of 2,600m.

Stubai, Tirol. Image © PlanetSKI

The  new reservoir was built as an addition to the machine-made snowmaking system.

This has been extended and expanded in stages to exclusively supply existing slopes in as environmentally friendly manner as possible.

The there is now “a wider selection of snowsure slopes is going to be available for early glacier skiing”.

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