ARCHIVED - Heavy snow in the Sierra Nevada but will ski resorts in Spain open this year?

Ski resorts were among the first coronavirus hotspots in Europe at the end of last winter

The inclement weather which is sweeping across Spain has brought the first significant snowfall of the winter to the mountains of the Sierra Nevada in Granada, home to the southernmost ski resort in Europe, with depths of between 60 and 80 centimetres reported on the upper slopes above 2,000 metres by Friday morning.

In any normal year, of course, this would signal the opening of the resort and the arrival of the first skiers of the season, but this year winter sports, like so many other aspects of life, are subject to the restrictions made necessary by the coronavirus pandemic. The Spanish government has announced the creation of a special committee to study the case of ski resorts in order to decide upon how they can be allowed to operate this winter, and there are important doubts over whether this can be permitted at all in the current circumstances.

It is worth pointing out that the province of Granada is currently among those with the highest Covid-19 incidence rates in Spain, with an average of 588 cases per 100,000 inhabitants over the last 14 days. This compares with a national rate of 325 and a figure of 385 for the whole of the eight provinces of Andalucía.

Elsewhere in Europe there are widely differing approaches to the conundrum. Germany is making efforts to secure an agreement with EU countries to keep ski resorts closed at least until early January, France has closed all resorts until the New Year and the Italian Prime Minister, Giuseppe Conte, is demanding that the EU present a coordinated and united policy, but on the other hand Austria has announced that not only will its resorts be open at Christmas but the frontiers will also be open to allow skiers into the country.

It is worth remembering that as the 2019-20 ski season in the northern hemisphere neared its end some of the early coronavirus hotspots were at ski resorts, with Ischgl in the Autrian Tirol having been widely cited as one of the worst offenders. western Austria helping spread infections across the continent. As recently as last week the World Health Organization warned that Europe faced a “tough” six months over the winter, with widespread fears that the pandemic could worsen and that any relaxation in restrictions could lead to a third wave of contagion.

The debate over ski resorts is a complex one, and as Signor Conte said this week, "if Italy decided to shut down all its ski lifts without any support from France, Austria and the other countries, then Italian tourists would risk going abroad and taking contagion back home".

In Switzerland, meanwhile, ski resorts are already open, and ski lifts are operational with a requirement that users wear face masks, although this has drawn criticism from the WHO. Switzerland, of course, is outside the EU and is therefore not bound to obey policies decided upon in Brussels.