In a year that is about to go down in history as the hottest and driest since there are records, the time has come to start - it is still a paradox - the engines to start the season of ski. A campaign that now, like few others, has its eyes on the sky and on the weather forecasts to open the first stations (Baqueira-Beret, Boí-Taüll or La Molina) on the last weekend of this November
The snow business is well aware that the winds are not blowing in their favor at the moment. Although they are already used to working in very adverse conditions. And this experience of other dry and hot winters allows them to be, thanks to the investments made in recent years in artificial snowmaking and ponds to store water, "relatively calm", agree in the snow sector. What worries them most now, of course, is the temperature.
Or to put it another way: if it's cold, even if there is very little precipitation, "most Catalan resorts will be able to open their doors thanks to these investments in snow production", predicts Joaquim Alsina, director of the Association Catalan Mountain Station Association (ACEM). A situation that is currently repeated all over Europe, "where the complexes are also allocating a lot of resources, more than in Spain, to artificial snowing", adds Alsina.
Toni Segarra, president of Ferrocarrils de la Generalitat de Catalunya (FGC), manager of the mountain stations of La Molina, Vall de Núria, Espot Esquí, Port Ainé, Vallter and Boí Taüll, is just as optimistic as Alsina. Or even more, when he remembers that after hot and dry summers and autumns "winters usually come with a lot of precipitation".
Ferrocarrils presented yesterday – this year they are the first – the 2023-2024 ski season of the complexes it operates. Segarra agrees that the investment in snow cannons has become crucial to ensure this activity, with an economic impact on the territories of the FGC stations of 322 million euros last season. Almost double the investment of 148 million by the Government in these complexes, which create more than 2,700 jobs. The figures are part of a study in which Pompeu Fabra University participated.
The president of Ferrocarrils emphasizes that all these investments are being executed with "a commitment to sustainability and the fight against the climate emergency". The example? "We have managed to reduce - reveals Segarra - the direct and indirect emissions at the stations by 88.5%". And during the past season "water consumption in these complexes was reduced by 25% per visitor".
Water, a commodity now very scarce, is the fuel for making snow. From all the stations it is ensured that at the moment the reserves in ponds and artificial lakes of slopes are almost one hundred percent, so there is no fear that there will be a shortage to start the cannons.
The forecast is to open the first stations on the weekend of November 25 (La Molina, Baqueira or Boí Taüll) and the rest - Masella does not usually set a date and opens with the first snowfall - will wait until early week of December The challenge, in Catalonia, is to add at least the 2.2 million ski days sold last season, one of the best in history.
