Resorts throughout Europe are riding the wave of technology into the third millennium to provide guests with more comfort, safety and choice. High-powered floodlights guarantee skiing day or night. Most of the archaic lifts have been replaced with detachable quads or six-seaters that carry up to 2,400 people per hour. The installation of cameras on slopes not only allows skiers to see the conditions from home, but it reassures them there is no risk of avalanches, Cailli said. Last season more than 100 people died in Austria, Switzerland and France in one of the worst avalanche seasons in decades.
Experts blame the catastrophe on an exceptionally large snowfall in a very brief period.
They contend that all that can be done to counter the wrath of nature is being done, like blasting avalanches, closing runs after heavy snowfalls and obliging off-piste skiers to hire a certified guide. But now you also can enroll in an avalanche safety course at just about any resort. To satisfy skiers' appetite for diverse terrain and scenery, resorts have banded into new and larger consortiums offering multi-area tickets that even allow skiing across national borders. We need to limit the number of people on the slopes. Mountains mean silence and communication with nature.