Weather today:
-4°C
Mountain
Piste grooming
Over 20 piste-grooming devices operate in Gastein to provide our guests with optimum conditions on the slopes.
A new piece of piste-grooming equipment costs around 270,000 Euros, which is about the price of a family-sized house. Every year the lift operator, Gasteiner Bergbahnen, purchases 3 new machines.
The most significant factors for optimum piste-grooming are the weather forecast and the experience of our work team!
As a rule our slopes are groomed in the evenings and work continues until late into the night (until approx. 2 a.m.). If a clear night follows you will find beautiful, compact runs with superb conditions next day.
If there is a fresh fall of snow after 4 a.m. in the morning, up to 20 grooming devices will be in operation. As there is no opportunity for the fresh fallen and groomed snow to bond well with the old snow before lift operation begins at 8 a.m., the slopes seem very soft on such days.
If snowfall continues during grooming, it can happen that slopes already groomed early in the morning have a fresh covering of snow before lift operations begin, giving the impression that the slopes have not been groomed at all.
If the snow is particularly hard the grooming device is not always able to remove all moguls and make it smooth and compact again. In this case the surface of the slope tends to be rough and ribbed.
We ask you to understand that, due to the high-alpine location of our skiing region and the weather conditions that often change very abruptly, it is not always possible to provide optimum conditions on the slopes.
Safety tip
For the purpose of providing you with the best possible conditions on the slopes every day all runs are closed between 5 p.m. and 8 a.m. when lift operation ceases!
During this time piste grooming and snow-making work is carried out. (ATTENTION: ropes cross the slopes – Risk of fatal injury!!!).
