Zermatt has announced it will offer more summer skiing options for all this year, opening up terrain previously reserved for national team training.
The famous Swiss resort, which offers skiing year round on Europe’s highest lift-served slopes, has also said it will switch its focus to helping young ski racers improve with enhanced summer training facilities.
Franz Julen, Chairman of the Board of Directors, and Markus Hasler, CEO Zermatt Bergbahnen AG, issued a joint statement explaining:
“Starting this summer, there will be no training pistes in Zermatt for elite ski teams. The situation will be reviewed in a year’s time. This strategic decision means that young teams from ski clubs, the regional associations and NPCs will be provided with a generous, specially adapted infrastructure with training times throughout the summer months. The decision is effective immediately and ensures that Zermatt Bergbahnen will continue to play its part in the development of the next generation of winter sports talent. Furthermore, visitors will be able to enjoy an expanded offering and greater variety during their summer ski breaks in Zermatt. Skiing for all on natural snow in the summer is set to become even more attractive.”
Zermatt is one of a diminishing number of northern hemisphere ski resorts offering summer skiing as climate change has led a growing number of former, smaller, lower altitude summer ski destinations to stop offering snowsports outside the winter season.
However Zermatt says demand is strong, noting in a media release.
“Summer skiing is as popular as ever. Climate change and generally rising temperatures are leading visitors to seek out cooler destinations in the summer. This is illustrated by the pleasing number of ski tourists coming from northern Italy to enjoy summer skiing here in recent years, a positive trend confirmed by increasing numbers of skiers from other international markets.”
The resort says that this summer there’ll be an “improved offer” for all summer skiers and snowboarders, with an expanded 21km of slopes available to all and facilities including the new “SnowXperience Plateau Rosa” beginners’ park operating on Testa Grigia to gives visitors a chance to get their first taste of skiing or snowboarding alongside a range of other activities on the snow and ice in the summer ski area.
The move comes after the International Ski & Snowboard Federation (FIS) and Swiss and Italian Ski Federations decided to give up on attempts to offer World Cup ski racing on a new course created between Zermatt and Cervinia which is both the world’s highest and first to cross an international border. Unfortunately, races planned in autumn 2022 and 2023 had to be cancelled due to various issues with the weather and snow on race days and the FIS have now said they won’t try again in 2024.
However, the FIS had agreed a five-year contract to stage the races, Zermatt’s lift company, Zermatt Bergbahnen, says and the decision also seems to be in conflict with a major issue faced by many of the traditional race venues on the World Cup Tour – their comparatively low altitudes also leading to races needing to be cancelled at their locations.
Zermatt Bergbahnen say that the facilities international race teams training were tied in with hosting World Cup races so it is now rethinking its priorities in light of their cancellation.
The promotion of young talent is a key pillar of Zermatt Bergbahnen’s strategy, the company says. Ski clubs, regional associations represented by their junior teams, and the National Performance Centres (NPC West, Central and East) provide important foundations for youngsters participating in winter sports. The large number of children and young people actively committed to skiing produces many good athletes destined for a career as a professional skier.
For the resorts, these ski fans go on to form a vitally important pool from which to recruit instructors, mountain guides and promoters of winter sports. Zermatt Bergbahnen has a key role to play in supporting young enthusiasts and contributing to the development of skiing and snow sports generally. For example, free travel in Zermatt for children up to the age of nine.
Image credit: Pascal Gertschen
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