SHARE
COPY LINK

SKIING

Winter sports: Swiss cable cars to introduce capacity restrictions

Large cable cars and gondolas in Switzerland will be capped at 70 percent due to Covid fears.

The view outside a gondola in Switzerland
Large gondolas - with a capacity greater than 25 people - will have their capacity reduced to 70 percent under new rules. Photo: Photo by Hannes Netzell on Unsplash

Switzerland’s ski areas are open and plenty of snow has already been delivered. 

While the Covid certificate and other protections are not required to go skiing in Switzerland, Swiss Cableways – the organisation in charge of cable cars – will cap gondola capacity at 70 percent due to Covid concerns. 

EXPLAINED: Everything tourists should know about skiing in Switzerland

This voluntary measure will apply from December 18th, 2021 and will only be applicable to large cable cars, i.e. with a capacity greater than 25 people. 

The measure will only apply to enclosed cable cars. 

The association will also put in place additional distance protections in queues. 

The association wanted to avoid the current situation whereby a patchwork set of rules apply at different ski fields in different parts of the country, Swiss tabloid Blick reports. 

As the rules are being put in place on a voluntary basis, they will be monitored by the ski resorts themselves.  

A Covid certificate is not required to ski or to take cable cars or gondolas.

READ MORE: Switzerland will not require Covid certificate for winter sports

It is, however, obligatory in bars and restaurants in the ski area, although people eating and drinking on outdoor terraces and balconies will not need it.

But you will also need a certificate to access fitness centres, as well as indoor entertainment venues like clubs.

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.

SKIING

LATEST: US teenager among three killed in Swiss avalanche

One of the three people killed by an avalanche at the luxury Swiss ski resort of Zermatt was a 15-year-old boy from the United States, police said Tuesday.

LATEST: US teenager among three killed in Swiss avalanche

The two others killed in Monday’s avalanche were “a man and a woman who are still being identified”, the Wallis regional police said in a statement.

“Regarding the female victim, we so far have no information allowing us to identify her.”

The large avalanche happened in an out-of-bounds area at Zermatt in southern Switzerland shortly after 2:00 pm (1200 GMT), and an extensive search
was immediately carried out despite bad weather.

Of the four people pulled out of the snow, only one was still alive, a 20-year-old Swiss man who was seriously injured and airlifted to hospital.

The authorities had warned of a significant avalanche risk in the Alpine regions of southern Switzerland in recent days because of heavy snowfall and
high winds.

Around 17 people have lost their lives in avalanches in Switzerland since October 1 last year, according to statistics from the WSL Institute for Snow
and Avalanche Research.

A total of 147 avalanche-related accidents have occurred during the period, involving 197 people.

SHOW COMMENTS