You might think that everyone who works in the ski industry spends the summer lounging around waiting for the first snowfalls! Well, that might be the case for some, but here at Snowplaza, we make the most of the spring and summer months to keep busy collecting and checking data so that we can be proud to publish this information on our websites. We have also been working on improvements and this winter you will notice quite a few changes on the UK website including the addition of many new ski resorts as far afield as Colorado in the United States!
One of the details we spend time checking each summer is the number of kilometers of ski slopes that each ski area or resort claims to have. No, we haven’t been up the mountains with the tape measure – not quite anyway! As we think it's important to always provide reliable information, we put all the ski resort data under the microscope! What is strange is that this year some ski areas have totaled less kilometers of slopes than in previous years. And no, there are no runs that have been closed or shortened! So how can that be? The big discussion about the number of kilometers of slopes has meant that some ski areas have had to reduce the number shown on official documents and on the internet.
Actually it is already an "old" discussion; how you actually measure the number of kilometers of slopes in a ski resort? Some runs were previously counted two or even three times if the descent is very wide and there are different ways to ski down – left of the tree or right of the tree for example! If a ski slopes splits in the middle and ends in 2 different places is the top part counted as one or 2 runs?? Not an easy business. The method for measuring slopes in the USA is perhaps more reliable and gives a better idea as they give the number of acres that the ski slopes cover, so you know the real "skiable" surface area. However, if you’re like me, I find it difficult to imagine how big an acre actually is!
A German ski journalist has recently been discussing kilometers of ski slopes a lot much to the displeasure of many ski resort managers. Christoph Schrage, who has been skiing for over 30 years in ski resorts around the world, has carried out a large-scale survey in 80 ski areas which claim to have over 110 kilometers of slopes. His method was actually quite logical: he simply counted the fall line in the middle of a run and therefore, each run was only measured once. As a result, large bends or the width of the slopes were not counted as extra meters. The results of his research were, for some ski areas, not very positive!
For example, the Stubai Glacier – a ski area with particularly wide ski slopes - that had been previously measured as having 129.5km of runs, totalled only 47km of runs using Schrage’s theory! Les Quatre Vallées in Switzerland came out very badly with the total number of ski slopes decreasing from 412 to only 159 km! According to the journalist, the Zillertal Hochfügen-HochZillertal ski area in Austria, has 73km of slopes and not 181km. However, there wasn’t only bad news that came out of this experience! Kitzbuhel-en-Kirchberg, Schladming-Dachstein, St-Anton-St-Christoph-Stuben, Lech, Upper Lech & Zürs, Saalbach Hinterglemm Leogang and L'Espace Diamant had claimed the correct number of kilometers of slopes. And the super ski areas; Les Trois Vallées, Paradiski and Dolomiti Superski, including Gröden & Seseralm had only claimed around 20% more kilometers, which is an acceptable margin of error!
After a lot of discussion, some ski areas such as the Serfaus-Fiss-Ladis stated (in an interview with us) that they might want to get rid of the kilometer system and that the Tyrol region might eventually use the American method of measuring the actual skiable area. Another ski area, the Hochzeiger-in Pitztal, had its number of kilometers of slopes officially reduced from 54 to 40 which is a very honest gesture indeed as larger, more significant changes of more than 20% have not been seen yet. I believe that this debate will continue for a long time and I am curious as to the outcome and possible changes.
For ski resort and ski areas, the number of kilometers of slopes is, of course, a good way to attract more winter sports fans to the resort or ski area. Because after all: the bigger the better, right? Personally, I’m not so sure. After a ski holiday in the Three Valleys last winter with a group of mixed skiers and snowboarders, I came home feeling rather frustrated that I had been in the “largest” ski area in the world but had probably only skied one third of the slopes on the map. If you’re unsure, then online ski maps will give you a very good idea of whether the number of claimed kilometers of ski slopes has been inflated as you can easily see the number of different options available.
Is the number of kilometers important to you when choosing a ski area? Have you ever been surprised or disappointed by the size of a ski area once you arrived in our ski resort? Leave a comment or join us on Facebook and tell us what you think…
You might think that everyone who works in the ski industry spends the summer lounging around waiting for the first snowfalls! Well, that might be the case for some, but here at Snowplaza, we make the most of the spring and summer months to keep busy collecting and checking data so that we can be proud to publish this information on our websites. We have also been working on improvements and this winter you will notice quite a few changes on the UK website including the addition of many new ski resorts as far afield as Colorado in the United States!
One of the details we spend time checking each summer is the number of kilometers of ski slopes that each ski area or resort claims to have. No, we haven’t been up the mountains with the tape measure – not quite anyway! As we think it's important to always provide reliable information, we put all the ski resort data under the microscope! What is strange is that this year some ski areas have totaled less kilometers of slopes than in previous years. And no, there are no runs that have been closed or shortened! So how can that be? The big discussion about the number of kilometers of slopes has meant that some ski areas have had to reduce the number shown on official documents and on the internet.
Actually it is already an "old" discussion; how you actually measure the number of kilometers of slopes in a ski resort? Some runs were previously counted two or even three times if the descent is very wide and there are different ways to ski down – left of the tree or right of the tree for example! If a ski slopes splits in the middle and ends in 2 different places is the top part counted as one or 2 runs?? Not an easy business. The method for measuring slopes in the USA is perhaps more reliable and gives a better idea as they give the number of acres that the ski slopes cover, so you know the real "skiable" surface area. However, if you’re like me, I find it difficult to imagine how big an acre actually is!
A German ski journalist has recently been discussing kilometers of ski slopes a lot much to the displeasure of many ski resort managers. Christoph Schrage, who has been skiing for over 30 years in ski resorts around the world, has carried out a large-scale survey in 80 ski areas which claim to have over 110 kilometers of slopes. His method was actually quite logical: he simply counted the fall line in the middle of a run and therefore, each run was only measured once. As a result, large bends or the width of the slopes were not counted as extra meters. The results of his research were, for some ski areas, not very positive!
For example, the Stubai Glacier – a ski area with particularly wide ski slopes - that had been previously measured as having 129.5km of runs, totalled only 47km of runs using Schrage’s theory! Les Quatre Vallées in Switzerland came out very badly with the total number of ski slopes decreasing from 412 to only 159 km! According to the journalist, the Zillertal Hochfügen-HochZillertal ski area in Austria, has 73km of slopes and not 181km. However, there wasn’t only bad news that came out of this experience! Kitzbuhel-en-Kirchberg, Schladming-Dachstein, St-Anton-St-Christoph-Stuben, Lech, Upper Lech & Zürs, Saalbach Hinterglemm Leogang and L'Espace Diamant had claimed the correct number of kilometers of slopes. And the super ski areas; Les Trois Vallées, Paradiski and Dolomiti Superski, including Gröden & Seseralm had only claimed around 20% more kilometers, which is an acceptable margin of error!
After a lot of discussion, some ski areas such as the Serfaus-Fiss-Ladis stated (in an interview with us) that they might want to get rid of the kilometer system and that the Tyrol region might eventually use the American method of measuring the actual skiable area. Another ski area, the Hochzeiger-in Pitztal, had its number of kilometers of slopes officially reduced from 54 to 40 which is a very honest gesture indeed as larger, more significant changes of more than 20% have not been seen yet. I believe that this debate will continue for a long time and I am curious as to the outcome and possible changes.
For ski resort and ski areas, the number of kilometers of slopes is, of course, a good way to attract more winter sports fans to the resort or ski area. Because after all: the bigger the better, right? Personally, I’m not so sure. After a ski holiday in the Three Valleys last winter with a group of mixed skiers and snowboarders, I came home feeling rather frustrated that I had been in the “largest” ski area in the world but had probably only skied one third of the slopes on the map. If you’re unsure, then online ski maps will give you a very good idea of whether the number of claimed kilometers of ski slopes has been inflated as you can easily see the number of different options available.
Is the number of kilometers important to you when choosing a ski area? Have you ever been surprised or disappointed by the size of a ski area once you arrived in our ski resort? Leave a comment or join us on Facebook and tell us what you think…
Being lucky enough to have parents who were crazy about skiing, my love for the mountains started when I was 4 years old on our first family ski holiday to Austrian ski resort of Obergurl. One ski holiday a year was never enough and tears rolled down my face as I looked out the back window of the car on the drive down the valley on the way home!
