In the mountains of Sochi, the ski season started after heavy snowfalls. This was announced on Thursday, December 24, by representatives of the Krasnaya Polyana resort, which opened its ski tracks.
Since the beginning of December, the weather has been warm and dry in Sochi, which does not allow ski resorts to open ski trails for tourists. On December 21, the temperature dropped and heavy rainfall came in the form of snow.
The first ski season in Sochi opened the resort in the mountain valley “Circus-2” “Krasnaya Polyana”. For skiing and snowboarding, trails of medium difficulty are available, and for the first time a green trail for beginners and students at an altitude of 2200 m above sea level was opened in the resort.
As noted by the TV channel “360”, already from 09:00 on the tracks “Circus-2”, as well as “First Snow” and “Aibga” queues lined up. As tourists tell on social networks, you have to stand in line for the lift for more than an hour.
It is specified that 30 km of slopes, nine areas for freeriding, as well as 14 modern lifts and three snow parks with snow figures and street lines are open for alpine skiing and snowboarding in the winter season 2020/21.
In March 2021, the resort will host the Week on Peak après-ski festival among winter sporting events, and in April, the Happy Hour Camp.
On Friday, December 25, Rosa Khutor will open tracks for skiers. At first, 50 km of trails will be available for tourists. In this winter season, a new cable car “Veronica” will start operating from an elevation of 2320 m above sea level to the South Slope. The cabins of this new generation gondola lift can accommodate up to 10 people. Its capacity is 2.4 thousand people per hour. Mountain Tourist Center “Gazprom” announced that it will open trails for skiing on Saturday, December 26.
As REGNUM writes, an interdepartmental headquarters will operate in the Sochi mountain cluster from December 28 to daily monitor the situation, breed tourist flows and monitor compliance with anti-epidemiological measures.
As the website kp.ru writes, on December 23 in Sochi the consequences of the snowfall were eliminated for more than six hours. The height of the snow cover in a few days has grown by 110-120 cm. The press service of Krasnaya Polyana warned that the danger of snow melt at high speed persists on slopes over 35 degrees at an altitude of 1,500-2,300 m above sea level. In this regard, tourists were urged to refrain from skiing off-piste.
On December 19, it was reported that the 15th jubilee ski season – 2020/21 opened at the Igora resort in the Leningrad region. In the new season, special attention is paid to the safety of guests – a regulation has been developed to counter COVID-19. Social distance has been increased in restaurants and crowded places, and the use of personal protective equipment is mandatory. A robot for non-contact thermometry is installed in the rental building.