While some people are already wishing that the cold season is back due to the high temperatures, many people indulge in their winter hobbies in summer too. Several videos (see below) of a Tyrolean glacier ski area are causing horror on social media these days, because despite the massive heat wave, people are skiing there. As a fact check shows, these videos are not from this year.
You can see people plowing through heavily melted, blackish snow on a drag lift. “Summer ski tourism” in times of the climate crisis and “greed” are criticized. In the meantime, the APA has confirmed that it is the Hintertux Glacier, but the recordings should not be from this year. “Conditions are currently very difficult” He sees this in the fact that glacier areas are covered in the background that were not covered this winter were, said Matthias Dengg, member of the management board. He does not dare to say what year the recording could have come from. But: “Such phases happen again and again,” put Dengg into perspective and admitted: “The conditions are currently very difficult.” The pistes look similar at the moment, as the scene in the video suggests. Glacier ski areas suffer from heat these conditions only from mid-August until the onset of autumn in September. Dengg cited the lack of snow in the winter combined with an exceptionally warm spring as the reason for the current situation. The current heat wave has done the rest. “It is currently unusually warm, even at high altitudes,” Dengg noted. “Ice and snow are melting – experts have also commented on this in detail in the last few days.” The melt affects all glaciers. In Tyrol there are “five glacier ski areas and over 600 glaciers,” recalled Dengg. New “disaster film”? The video was posted on Twitter with the title “Tyrolean glacier or new disaster film?” on Thursday morning. A few hours after publication, it was already viewed 42,000 times. In the comments, a user posted a similar video that was also recorded on the Hintertux Glacier – apparently “a few days ago”. In this video, skiers are on their way down the valley – in deep gullies that are less like a track than a water slide. On the website, the Hintertux Glacier presents itself as “Austria’s only year-round ski area” and advertises “365 days of snow fun” and up to 20 kilometers of slopes in the Summer. The demand in the summer months is still there, explained Dengg. But it is mainly (prospective) professional athletes and ski instructors who go to the glacier for training. Many inquiries as to whether skiing is possible This was also confirmed by the Austrian Ski School Association (ÖSSV). During the summer months, most interested parties could take time for the training, the association explains why the courses take place in the summer. This has been carried out on the Hintertux Glacier for years. This year there are three summer ski courses – in which an average of 70 people from all Austrian states take part, as well as one snowboard and one dual course . The uncertainty was great because of the current high temperatures. However, the training managers decided to do it “despite little snow”: “They know their way around well.”
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