Silvretta Montafon
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Silvretta Montafon |
Silvretta Montafon is a ski area in Montafon , Vorarlberg .
Silvretta Montafon emerged in 2008 from the Silvretta Nova ski areas on the left side of the valley near St. Gallenkirch , Gaschurn and Hochjoch on the right side of the valley near Schruns , Silbertal . Today it is one of the 10 largest winter sports areas in Austria. The Silvretta Montafon as a leading tourism company employs the mountain railway, the ski schools, the Sporthotel Silvretta Montafon, the 13 Intersport shops and the ten restaurants with up to 900 employees during the winter season and is one of the largest mountain railway and tourism companies in Austria.
Location and landscape
The Silvretta Montafon ski area is located in the south of Vorarlberg , the westernmost state of Austria, and stretches over 17 km and 1700 meters in altitude - from Schruns via Silbertal and St. Gallenkirch to Gaschurn. It is located in the Montafon valley, framed by the Rätikon , Silvretta and Verwall mountain groups . The Nova part extends on the northern flank of the Silvretta group , the Hochjoch part on a foothills of the Verwall group , between which the Montafon moves south. The valley covers 1/5 of Vorarlberg's area and is larger in area (562 km²) than Vienna (415 km²). The region is about 40 minutes by car from Feldkirch in the Rhine Valley , south of the district capital Bludenz .
Infrastructure
The ski area now has 140 km of certified slopes, 56 km of which are blue, 49 km red, 8 km black and around 27 km of designated freeride trails and routes. It extends from 700 m to 2430 m.
The 35 lifts comprise 10 gondolas , 18 chair lifts and 5 drag lifts , 2 conveyors, 15 Skischullifte and including 7 Shuttle tracks: the Hochjochbahn ( Pendelbahn ) and Zamangbahn (6-seater gondola ) in Schruns , the Valiserabahn (6-gondola) and Grasjochbahn (8-seater Monocable gondola) in St. Gallenkirch, the Garfreschabahn (2-seater chairlift) in Gortipohl, the Versettlabahn (6- person monocable gondola ) in Gaschurn and the Kapellbahn (2-seater chairlift) in Silbertal . The latest ascent aids in the ski area are the 8- seater panorama gondola lift (Silvretta Montafon) in the Hochjoch area with free WiFi in the individual gondolas, the Grasjoch gondola already mentioned above and the subsequent high alpine gondola with orange-tinted windows. There is also the 8-seater chairlift Sonnenbahn with orange weather protection hoods and heated seats ( 8KSB / BOS ), as well as the 8-seater chairlift Silvretta Bahn (8KBS / BS), which was built in the summer of 2016 , which provides a new connection between the "Garfrescha" and "Gampaping" parts of the ski area. manufactures.
There is a wide range of restaurants both in the ski area and in the valley stations of the feeder lifts and in the valley towns.
With the Snowpark Montafon and Freeridecross there is also an extensive fun park available on the Grasjoch . There are also 2 toboggan runs and 4 marked winter hiking trails in the ski area. In the valley there is a ski bus every 20 minutes during the main season, which connects the winter sports resorts and valley stations with each other and with Schruns train station . There are also restaurants and ski rentals available on the mountain and in the valley.
Four of the lifts are also in summer operation and open up an extensive hiking area and make the Hochjoch especially known as a flight region for paragliders.
development
The planned new construction of the 30-year-old Valiserabahn on a new route including hotel, ski school and multi-storey car park, a € 30 million project for summer 2016, was canceled on February 12, 2016 because no agreement could be reached with some landowners. The Valiserabahn will have to be renovated in 3 to 4 years. There are also other development projects.
Nova area
Silvretta Nova includes the Versettla ( Burg 2247 m above sea level ), Schwarzköpfle ( 2300 m above sea level ) and Valisera ( 2035 m above sea level ) ski mountains . As foothills of the Madrisella ( 2466 m above sea level ), these accompany the Novatal , a small high valley near St. Gallenkirch, in which the eponymous Alp Nova ( 1736 m above sea level ) is located. The Versettla lies above Gaschurn, and it goes up from St. Gallenkirch via Garfrescha and Valisera .
Hochjoch area
At the Hochjoch ( 2520 m above sea level. A. ), Freda head ( 2252 m above sea level. A. ) Kreuzjoch ( 2396 m above sea level. A. ), and the Zamangspitze ( 2387 m above sea level. A. ), around the Alpe Kapell lies the Hochjoch area . The Hochjochstock forms a rather solitary foothill of the Madererkamm . Originally only accessible from Schruns, the cable car from Silbertal was later built, and in 2011 the Grasjoch connecting cable car from St. Gallenkirch up.
history
Economic history in the Montafon
Generously developed ski destinations have shaped the image of the Montafon since the 1990s and are an important employer, alongside illwerke vkw AG in the valley. That was different more than 100 years ago. When the political situation allowed it, young women and men would move through neighboring European countries as migrant workers from the spring . With the savings, they returned to their families in late autumn. They worked on construction sites in France or in the Rhineland, as a cabbage picker or as a corn picker, later as Swabian children . Breathtaking natural landscapes were recognized and used as a recreation area, and transport links were established.
In 1905, for example, the Montafonerbahn was opened to transport goods and visitors between Bludenz and Schruns. Subsequently, accommodation establishments and Alpine Club huts were built and hiking trails laid out. The tourism brought initially many summer tourists before in the 1980s by the development of ski resorts in the winter tourism the summer tourism overtook on overnight stays, which remained unchanged to this day.
A so far unique event in the history of the ski area was the abrupt closure of all ski areas in the state on March 15, 2020, ordered by the Vorarlberg state government in the middle of the current ski season, and the departure of all guests on the following day as a result of the Covid 19 pandemic .
Montafoner Bergbahn GmbH
The first beginnings of ski tourism on the Hochjoch go back to the 1910s (Schruns winter sports club) . The Montafoner Bergbahn GmbH , founded in 1948, began operations in 1950/1951 under the name Hochjoch Schruns .
Silvretta Nova Bergbahnen AG
The foundation stone for the development of the then Silvretta Nova was laid by the partner and master builder Walter Klaus. By merging the two ski lift companies Gaschurn and St. Gallenkirch, he and Silvretta Nova Bergbahnen AG - under the Silvretta Nova brand - ensured the company's economic upturn and, in addition to the energy and tourism infrastructure, became the Vorarlberger Illwerke (around the farthest Montafon with Bielerhöhe ) most important economic factor in the region. At the beginning of the 1980s, winter tourism outstripped summer tourism for the first time, which has remained unchanged to this day.
The ski area was known nationally and internationally through the Austrian Alpine Ski Championships in 1947 and the gold key races (Ski World Cup) of the 1960s / 70s.
Silvretta Montafon GmbH
| Silvretta Montafon GmbH | |
|---|---|
| legal form | Company with limited liability |
| founding | April 2015 (start date of the legal form) |
| Seat | St. Gallenkirch |
| management | Peter Marko, Martin Oberhammer |
| Number of employees | 240-900 |
| sales | approx. € 25 million |
| Branch | Alpine sports infrastructure |
| Website | silvretta-montafon.at |
A new part of the company, under the new brand Silvretta Montafon , began with the purchase of Silvretta Nova Bergbahnen AG and its subsidiaries by the Bank for Tyrol and Vorarlberg (BTV) in 2007. In addition to lifts, the company also looks after mountain restaurants in the entire ski area, as well the Sporthotel Silvretta Montafon in Gaschurn (company headquarters there), the Schruns ski school, and holds the majority in Intersport Montafon.
The merger of Nova and Hochjoch made the Silvretta Montafon the largest ski area in Vorarlberg in 2008 and at the same time one of the top ten ski areas in Austria. Until 2011, however, the Hochjoch could only be reached from the outskirts of the valley. In 2011/12, the connection via St. Gallenkirch with the Grasjoch – Hochalpila facility went into operation.
For the 20./21. December 2011 planned European Cup race for women (slalom), which would have offered a further step towards establishing itself, had to be canceled due to lack of snow.
The Sporthotel Silvretta Montafon was redesigned and expanded in autumn 2012 and spring 2013.
Ski operation and nature conservation
As for many remote Alpine valleys, hydropower and skiing were the two economic engines of the mid-20th century for the Montafon. And as in many other Alpine regions, the importance of nature conservation - also as a model for tourism industry - was initially rejected. When the inner Verwall was declared a European and nature reserve ( bird sanctuary Verwall ) in the 1990s , there were still plans to expand the Hochjoch to the east, so that the protection of the Silbertaler area could only be implemented after mediation proceedings. It was also helpful that Walther Flaig , a renowned alpine writer ( AV guide of the region), who advocated nature conservation as early as the 1930s, was involved in founding the Hochjochbahnen.
The Montafon has never been one of the most prominent ski areas (like the nearby Arlberg), and thanks to the location of the area between the rugged peaks of Verwall, Rätikon and Silvretta - which is technically unfavorable and favorable in terms of nature conservation - the amount of landscape used compared to other ski regions Alps within limits. Both ski centers, Kapellalpe and Alp Nova, are located in basins that cannot be seen from the valley, so that only the few valley runs intervene in the landscape of the Montafon. Today, the gentle tourism of the area is taken into account in the further expansion, for example the near rear Silbertal as well as the Valschaviel are particularly natural.
In 2019/20 disputes made repeated headlines over the planned construction of a water basin with a capacity of over 300,000 m³ and around 6.5 hectares for artificial snow, as well as a ski slope on the Schwarzköpfle in the Silvretta in the municipality of St. Gallenkirch. After the Bludenz District Authority approved this in April 2018, there were two complaints against the project. The environmental department of the Vorarlberg state government then recognized the need for an environmental impact assessment. That is why the Silvretta Montafon decided not to use the slopes and planned the pool to be 30,000 m³ smaller. Nevertheless, this would still be by far the largest in Vorarlberg. After the environmental department of the state government decided in December 2019 that the environmental impact assessment was not required for this downsized project, the Vorarlberg state nature conservation advocate intervened. She viewed the Silvretta Montafon approach as scaling down a project slice by slice in order to circumvent the environmental impact assessment. Environment Councilor Johannes Rauch also said that projects for this purpose should be chopped up "like a salami". A cable car industry representative in the Chamber of Commerce admitted that they were trying to "get around" legally around environmental impact assessments in order to prevent construction delays caused by objections.
After it came out in 2019 that, despite this unclear legal situation, preliminary civil engineering work was already taking place for the storage facility, the project caused an uproar among the public. It was assumed that the ski resort operators were presenting the authorities with a fait accompli, and that in the event that the construction work that had already been carried out was illegal, they wanted to have a dismantling effect unreasonable.
The ÖAV Vorarlberg viewed the project as a ruthless preference for commercial interests over nature conservation and sees a massive impairment of the landscape due to the dimensions of the planned reservoir (including a dam height of up to 26 m). In 2018 he started a petition against the reservoir of this size and calls for a nature-friendly system on a much smaller scale.
After the matter became pending in a Viennese court, the Silvretta Montafon withdrew its construction plans in June 2020 because it would not accept further construction delays due to legal disputes. She is now planning to make artificial snow in a different form.
Web links
Individual evidence
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↑ a b Winter: Winter Facts ( Memento of the original from August 12, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , montafon.at - with piste map ski3.intermaps.com ;
Silvretta Montafon . bergfex.at - with a map of the slopes and details of lifts, slopes and sports . - ↑ http://vorarlberg.orf.at/news/stories/2757309/ Valiserabahn: Off for new building is regretted, orf.at February 12, 2016, accessed February 12, 2016.
- ^ Update Coronavirus March 14th, 2020 - Silvretta Montafon. Retrieved May 11, 2020 .
- ↑ Montafon 1906–2006 ( Memento of the original dated January 3, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Summer exhibition Heimatschutzverein Montafon (PDF, activepaper.tele.net; 6.0 MB)
- ↑ a b Silvretta Montafon Bergbahnen AG , company data, Creditreform / firmenabc.at
- ↑ Overview of the group of companies: company information , silvretta-montafon.at
- ↑ VoMoNoSi Beteiligungs AG ( Memento of the original from May 26, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Company data, Creditreform / firmenabc.at
- ↑ Ski areas: New brand "Silvretta Montafon" (November 28, 2008)
- ↑ European Cup race in Schruns canceled . vol.at, December 13, 2011
- ↑ sporthotel.silvretta-montafon.at
- ↑ Mediation process Natura 2000 area Verwall. In: rosinak.co.at. Rosinak & Partner, Office of the Vorarlberg State Government, 2002, accessed on July 7, 2012 .
- ↑ cf. for example Maria Aschauer (edit.), Markus Grabher, Ingrid Loacker (edit.): History of nature conservation in Vorarlberg. An examination from an ecological point of view Report prepared on behalf of the Vorarlberg Nature Conservation Council, UMG Umweltbüro Grabher, December 7, 2007, Section 8.3. Protected area planning ( PDF , umg.at)
- ↑ Two new lifts - a milestone in ski tourism . In: GaPa-Zitig , Official Communications Gaschurn-Partenen, Gaschurn Municipality, June 2011, page 15. ( PDF ( Memento of the original from January 1, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check Original and archive link according to instructions and then remove this note. , Gaschurn-partenen.at)
- ↑ vorarlberg ORF at red: Ski areas want faster processes. June 20, 2020, accessed June 21, 2020 .
- ↑ a b vorarlberg ORF at red: reservoir pond: discussion of the approval process. June 17, 2020, accessed June 19, 2020 .
- ↑ Reservoir beckons environmental assessment. Retrieved February 14, 2020 .
- ↑ © Österreichischer AlpenvereinOlympiastraße 37, 6020 InnsbruckT + 43/512 / 59547F + 43/512 / 59547-50E-MailImprint: Petition against reservoir - please for your support! Retrieved February 14, 2020 .
- ↑ vorarlberg ORF at red: out for "reservoir Schwarzköpfle". June 16, 2020, accessed June 19, 2020 .
- ↑ https://vorarlberg.orf.at/stories/3030176/
