Ski areas in Bavaria: How low-lying ski areas are fighting for survival

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A white band on the north exit at Ochsenkopf reveals the problem

Photo: Daniel Vogl/dpa

1. Municipality of Immenreuth, Tannenberg lift

Thomas Kaufmann seems powerless.

He stands at a passage where skiers and snowboarders actually line up to be pulled up the approximately 500 meter long slope by the Tannenberg lift.

Past trees, flat and steep places, or, as Kaufmann calls the geological peculiarities: “a great slope.”

The mayor of the municipality of Immenreuth in the north of the Upper Palatinate is leaning against boards, he lifts his head, squints his eyes a little and sees green: green trees, green branches hanging on the slopes, green grass, green moss.

On a Wednesday in February with rain and six degrees.

“It’s a shame,” says Kaufmann, “but I can’t conjure up the snow.”

The worn rope, the old power-guzzling lighting system, the drag lift bars, finely numbered, hang on the wall: Since last November, these have only been relics of a closed chapter of winter sports in the region around the Fichtelgebirge.

After more than 50 years, the Tannenberg lift is over.

After thousands of ski courses, after winter days with blue skies and dazzling white slopes, after the “Tannenberg Cup” giant slalom race that took place here for decades.

There is no snow and investing in the lift from the 1970s is too expensive.

In Germany there are around 500 ski areas, 1200 drag lifts and over 200 cable cars, 80 percent of which are used in summer and winter.

However, many facilities, especially low-lying ones, are threatened, and others have already closed.

The death of lifts is not only in full swing in the north-east of Bavaria.

Whether in the Allgäu, the Bavarian Forest or the Swabian Alb, the list of closed facilities is getting longer.

But what does that mean?

Northern Bavaria shows how important skiing can be for the identity of a place and what consequences it has when operators have to admit that it can no longer continue.

And you can already get an insight into what awaits the higher altitude ski areas in a few years.

It is a new reality in which children no longer learn to ski on the local slope, but instead have to travel to higher Alpine regions with their parents.

And a new reality in which costs continue to rise and winter sports become more and more a luxury good.

In other words: what it's like when a popular sport dies.

How quickly this development is now progressing can be seen, for example, in the opening days of the Tannenberg lift in recent years.

The list for the December months reads like a documentation of climate change.

2010: 25 days, 2011: 23 days, 2012: two more weeks.

Then it was over.

The last long-term seasonal operation was in 2019. The Tannenberg lift opened for the last time in February 2022.

The mountain station of the Tannenberg lift is at 720 meters.

It was something of a counterpart to a luxurious Alpine holiday: an old drag lift instead of a chairlift with heated seats.

This becomes apparent when the merchant opens the room with the cash register and elevator drive.

A black wheel with paint peeling off controls the speed.

The CSU politician calls the technology “rustic.”

There is a list of drinks on the wall.

Lemonade and specials for 1.50 euros, beer for 2 euros.

The prices for the lift tickets were also affordable: day tickets from 14 euros.

An evening ticket for four hours: 4 euros.

A slope where it wasn't about money, but about sport.

Kaufmann says: “That was for the people here.”

If you talk to Kaufmann, it becomes clear how sorry he is that he is the mayor who gave the Tannenberg lift the coup de grace after decades.

“On average, we paid an extra 30,000 to 40,000 euros per season,” says Kaufmann.

And now even larger investments such as a new rope would have been necessary.

"That would have gone beyond the scope."

A study by the German Alpine Club showed in 2013 that, despite snowmaking facilities, only three ski areas in Bavaria are guaranteed to have snow in the long term: the Fellhorn and Nebelhorn in the Allgäu and the Zugspitze.

And recently published calculations by a team of researchers in the journal “Nature Climate Change” predict significant problems for Europe’s ski slopes.

Without snowmaking, more than half of the approximately 2,200 ski areas examined in 28 countries are likely to have a very high risk of a lack of snow if global warming reaches two degrees.

If half of the area has snow, that's still one in four ski areas.

The death of lifts, especially in small and low-lying areas, has been increasingly observed in recent years, says Maximilian Witting from the Ludwig Maximilians University (LMU) in Munich.

He researches the topic of climate change and winter sports and says that developments have even accelerated since the corona pandemic.

The reason: Because of the opening bans, reserves were used up.

The energy costs for snow cannons have exploded since the Russian war of aggression.

In addition, the season starts later and ends earlier.

This means that operators now have to earn as much or more money on fewer days.

The scientist therefore expects a concentration process.

Because of the ever-increasing uncertainty, the small, low-lying ones would fall off the market.

“And the larger, much higher-lying ones will have to think more about how they will deal with the increase in guests.”

2. Wollau municipality, Wollau ski lift

Christian Gareis knows in detail what Witting describes here.

The head of the DJK Pressath ski department sits in a wooden hut in the small town of Wollau, 20 kilometers away from Immenreuth.

Three wooden tables, upside down white wine and wheat beer glasses on a shelf, music system.

Just quaint.

For a long time, the hut had a small ski lift, which the club built and dismantled every year.

That ended in December.

The ski lift was disposed of and the lease was terminated.

The reasons: too little snow and a lack of staff.

The club's ski courses are now mainly held at the Klausenlift in Mehlmeisel, 30 kilometers away.

"That's where," says Gareis, "the northern Bavarian population is concentrated." He remembers a weekend in January when six ski clubs were there for children's ski courses because there are hardly any other alternatives in the region.

“There you are with 150 children in a room the size of half a football field.”

Gareis says he struggles with the fight against climate change, which cannot be won, and the great effort that is made to still be able to ski today.

»I would also prefer if we had half a meter of snow since December.

But those days are probably over.” He is therefore considering giving up the department management position.

Gareis points to one of the numerous pictures on the wall.

In one, around 60 children grin at the camera in front of a snowy landscape.

Behind them is a red target banner.

The final race in 1996. Seeing all the snow “it hurts,” he says.

“Skiing,” he says, “was once a popular sport.” Today, anyone from Pressath with two children on a day trip to the Alps would easily spend 350 euros.

3. Municipality of Maierhöfen, Iberg lifts

Moritz Sontheim lives in the municipality of Maierhöfen in the Allgäu.

He knows what it's like when the lifts you grew up with disappear.

“First the Kugellift, five years ago, then the Fluckenlift and last year the end of the Iberg ski lifts,” he lists.

Too many.

Sontheim didn't want that anymore - and tried to save the last small ski area on the Iberg.

Because, says Sontheim, it is a mountain for everyone.

»Two drag lifts, a good length, a good steepness«.

A club was founded in July.

Sontheim sits on the six-member board.

Local people can support the association.

Individual members pay 100 euros per year, families 150 euros.

The money is intended to cover fixed costs in the five-figure range.

“This is how the financial burden is distributed.” And this is how the business should continue.

In return, members receive free tickets and discounts.

Current number of members: around 230.

Anyone who talks to Sontheim about the Iberg gets an idea of ​​what it's like when the social center of the town is the ski slope and when every local resident can tell at least one story from there.

“If there’s snow,” says Sontheim, “then go to the Iberg.” Like on the first weekend of Advent.

Sunshine, 400 people on the slopes.

»You meet people from the village there.

You don't go alone." Going somewhere else with his children is too complicated, expensive and ecologically bad for him.

Sontheim says: “You can’t ski more sustainably than here in town.

No traffic jams, short distances, natural snow.«

The question remains whether the Iberg lifts will be able to hold up when it hardly snows anymore.

After the season we want to see whether the costs are covered.

“Of course it depends on our members.” Sontheim says it can only continue as long as there are enough people who care about the Iberg.

However, the development of snow days only knows one direction at the moment: downwards.

According to the German Weather Service, the number of snow days, i.e. days with a snow cover of at least three centimeters, at altitudes above 700 meters fell by 30 percent between 1961 and 2021.

Between 300 and 700 meters it is even half as much.

Bad prospects – especially for the low mountain ranges.

In addition, many of the systems are now outdated.

A ski boom developed from the middle of the 20th century.

Winter sports and tourism became increasingly popular.

Slopes were opened up and lifts were built.

Many people still use the technology today, which is why large investments have now become necessary for many at regular intervals.

4. Mehlmeisel community, Klausenlift

The Klausenlift in the municipality of Mehlmeisel in the neighborhood of the Ochsenkopf was also put into operation in 1969.

If you drive your car towards the ski area, you can see a white band from afar that lies like a blanket between the trees on the green slope.

To talk to Mehlmeisel's mayor Franz Tauber (Free Voters), we go to a room with the lift control and ticket sales.

It's raining.

And the politician realizes: "We're right at the problem."

Deaf, gray hair, gray shirt, blue jeans is someone who convincingly conveys that skiing is part of the low mountain ranges like sweet mustard is part of white sausage.

He says: "Winter sports are the identity of the Mehlmeisel community." And he puts forward a somewhat unusual equation: "Just as everyone has to be able to swim, people from the low mountain ranges have to be able to ski." If the ski lifts disappeared, it would be as if everyone would Close swimming pools.

That's why every lift that gives up hurts.

And Tauber says: “We call ourselves a winter sports region here.

If we close everything, then we won’t be that anymore.”

The fact that the community can continue to operate the three tow lifts and the two conveyor belts in the family area is thanks to a snow-making system from 2004. Tauber estimates that it has blown up to 70,000 cubic meters of snow onto the slopes this season alone.

The fact that skiing is out of the question on days like today due to the plus temperatures and the rain doesn't bother the mayor.

He even wants to invest in even more efficient snow cannons.

But even the best snowmaking system reaches its limits when it is too warm.

Ten years ago the lifts were open about 100 days per season, now they are only open for half.

And the artificial snow costs around 1,300 euros per day, Tauber calculates.

There is also criticism for this.

But he is convinced that there will still be enough frost days in the next few years, even if the ski area is only at 815 meters at its highest point.

Others also hope that Tauber is right.

A ski school only opened at the Klausen lift in December.

A ski rental service has also recently been added.

And the community itself also needs the income from the lift operations.

Tauber says: “We hardly have any businesses.” And without businesses, there is no trade tax revenue.

The money earned from the lift is firmly budgeted for in the budget.

It's working at the moment.

Guests come from a radius of 150 kilometers.

A month and a half ago there were 27,000 lift rides in one weekend.

There are also considerations for summer use, for example with mountain carts.

Researcher Witting from the LMU Munich also believes that this is a sensible first step.

It says it will be up to the ski areas themselves whether they survive in the future.

As the uncertainty of snow increases, they have to reduce their dependence on winter tourism - for example by diversifying the offers, even in the off-peak seasons.

“The ski areas should have thought about this the day before yesterday.” Because this requires new structures – and money.

But what does that mean for winter sports?

Is it reprehensible when people like Tauber make snow on a slope at a relatively low altitude?

Witting says that the question is "absolutely justified," but at the same time he doesn't think it's fair to just point the finger at skiing.

“If we ask this question, we also have to ask it when we fly to London to shop.” In other words: It is not productive to denounce individual leisure activities.

In Mehlmeisel, the water for the snow cannons comes from a storage pond.

Mayor Franz Tauber is convinced that this is good for nature because it irrigates the slope.

“We are now even a fauna-flora-habitat area.” But not everyone shares the enthusiasm for snow cannons.

Critics complain about, among other things, the high energy and water consumption as well as the noise.

According to the Federal Environment Ministry, seasonal snowmaking in the Alps alone uses as much electricity as half a million households per year.

In addition, three million liters of water are required for one hectare of artificial snow slopes.

Nevertheless, the majority of a ski area's CO₂ footprint is due to the arrival and departure of holidaymakers.

Climate activists have not yet glued themselves to Tauber's snow cannons.

“And if I do,” he says, “I’ll turn it on and blow it away.” Tauber thinks it’s a funny joke.

In Immenreuth, Mayor Thomas Kaufmann opens a large gate at the Tannenberg lift, behind which a snow groomer is parked.

It has become useless and is to be sold.

The lift system should also find a new buyer: the Gehrenlift, 30 kilometers away.

“They make snow there and people are happy about the spare parts,” says Kaufmann.

And so the Tannenberg lift helps to keep skiing in the region for a little longer.