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The ski season has started.
Robert Stadler has just completed his morning swings and unbuckled.
He stands in front of the valley station in Schladming, a glass building that could also be a congress or shopping center, and can only be amazed - not about the bright blue sky, but the guests.
There is a Viennese car, here a car with Linz license plates, then a mobile home with Slovak license plates.
At the sight, he doesn't really understand the meaning of this ski season, which is only intended for locals, he says - and greets a passing woman who walks by with a pair of skis slung over her shoulder.
“Innkeeper,” says Robert Stadler curtly.
"They have a house right up there."
In Schladming everything is closed except for the lifts and ski slopes - hotels, restaurants, and Robert Stadler has also closed his watchmaker's shop for the third time.
The third hard lockdown has been in effect in Austria since Saturday.
Hotels, all commercial accommodation and retail must remain closed until January 18th, catering is limited to takeaways.
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The start of the ski season in Austria started on Thursday without the popular destinations Ischgl and Saalbach-Hinterglemm.
Among other things, because mountain railway operators consider the obligation to wear FFP2 masks to be incompatible with the operation of the lifts.
But the ski circus in Austria is a show that has to go on.
Schladming and other ski areas are therefore open, despite the curfew that applies around the clock.
Winter sports enthusiasts alone cannot enjoy the hut.
And so it romps in front of the valley station of the Planai-Bahn.
For Robert Stadler, it is the exceptions that contradict the logic of the strict Corona measures: You are allowed to work outside, to cover the basic needs of daily life, to care for relatives in need of care, for walks, for individual sports and for court appointments.
The opening of the ski areas on December 24th was actually intended as an opportunity for locals to do sports.
Now, Vienna is a full three and a half hours by car from Schladming, and Linz is just two.
Stadler wonders: “Is it now lockdown or not?
Do we want to get this over with or not? "
The Schladminger swings his skis over his shoulders and stalks off, past the parking lot full of day visitors, past closed restaurants, closed hotels and apres ski bars that have switched to takeway: sausage with mayo and ketchup in bread, bottled beer or tea for frozen skiers.
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“What should you say about all of this?” Said a guest from Linz.
Day guest, as he emphasizes.
He smokes leaning against his Audi, his two children pull a sledge up the slope.
“We all wear gloves, we all wear masks.
What is supposed to happen there? ”And you can no longer catch a cold because everyone is flu-vaccinated.
He considers the lockdown to be "totally idiot".
Other day guests don't even want to talk about their ski trip and are immediately looking for the distance.
Despite Corona - Austria opens the ski season
Skiing is currently not possible in Germany.
The situation is completely different with the neighbors in the south: the ski season has opened in Austria.
People cavort on the slopes - but with one restriction.
Source: WELT / Dirk Schommertz
Schladming is the prototype of the more upscale ski resort: Hotel next to hotel, guest house after guest house.
In between: ski schools, ski rentals, sports shops, restaurants, chalets for second homes.
They are still on the information boards of the local tourist association, the winter magic offers: sleigh rides, snowshoeing for beginners and athletes, torchlight hikes.
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But now everything is different.
How different is shown on the way to the ski slopes.
In the Planai valley station, the “traffic advisors” are the most visible sign of this.
The cable car employees check the distance rules and intervene if they are not observed.
They make announcements in German and English to remind people to follow the rules.
Your message: "Let's stay safe and healthy together".
They can also be clearly seen in their yellow safety vests at all corners of the ski area.
A woman reprimanded guests in front of the escalator to the gondola to wear the FFP-2 mask and to keep the distance.
Because if there is one thing to avoid, it is images of crowds or even messages about infection clusters.
A corresponding concept has been worked on since the summer, as Markus Zeiringer says.
He is the spokesman for the Planai-Schladming-Bahnen.
Then everything was thrown over by new requirements.
400,000 tube scarves were purchased, which were to be given out as gifts with the lift ticket and, according to the regulations at the time, would have been sufficient as mouth and nose protection.
Then the requirements were improved and the obligation to wear the FFP-2 mask was introduced for gondolas.
The strict lady is now giving away the scarves anyway.
When unlocking it was about the principle, says Markus Zeiringer.
The fact that one will generate a plus in these weeks is excluded.
The capacity of the ski region is designed for around 30,000 guests per day, currently there are fewer than 6,000. The reason: Schladming is far away from large conurbations.
Closer to Vienna, for example, it looks different at the beginning of the season: At Semmering, a ski area an hour's drive from Vienna, the police had already reported overcrowding on December 25 and warned of the arrival.
Similar pictures on December 26th.
In Schladming, however, the hustle and bustle in front of the valley station and the snack bars is comparatively subdued.
And already on the main town square a few streets away there is a yawning emptiness.
“Last Christmas” can be heard softly from speakers.
In front of Café Landgraf there are sacks of marzipan pigs and biscuits on a folding table.
The warehouse is full, the employees who could be kept are on short-time work, something has to be done, says owner Brunhilde Graf.
The day guests, however, don't get lost here.
“This is for the regulars,” says the lady around 60 with the curly hair sitting in her empty café.
There is only a light on in the kitchen, and a radio is on somewhere far back in the factory.
On Sunday morning, at least around Schladming, the situation became less clear: at 10 o'clock the police warned of traffic jams on all access roads via Twitter due to the "influx of ski areas", the Hauser-Kaibling ski area had already reached its capacity limit, as did the St Jakob im Walde is closed to other guests as well as numerous ski areas in Upper Austria.