There is still some snow up on the Jenner, high above Schönau and the Königssee. However, it is difficult to determine from a distance whether the white remains below are all of natural origin or whether they came from lances and cannons at some point. And going up with the cable car is not possible right now, because the Jennerbahn is in spring revision. It’s not scheduled to start up again until Saturday, and by definition that’s when the summer season begins, snow or not. But to or fro is not really the question anyway, rather to or fro. All in all, the Jenner gives the impression that all the snow is somehow from yesterday.
The Jennerbahn recently announced that they are reorganizing their operations and that there will only be limited skiing operations from next winter. If it doesn’t snow properly, anyway, because they won’t throw themselves directly in the way of the skiers for the time being. They just don’t want to make so much artificial snow anymore. Only in the children’s area at the valley station should the basics of skiing be laid mechanically, also on the blue slope at the middle station, at the training base of the German Ski Association at Krautkaser and on the new toboggan run.
The Jennerbahn justifies this decision of its supervisory board with the experiences from the past winter. Apparently not too many guests wanted to ski down the snow-covered slopes, but were more out and about as freeriders, tourers or snowshoe hikers in the open terrain. “In fact, 70 percent of our tickets sold went to pedestrians,” says Jennerbahn CEO Thomas Hettegger, although all of these pedestrians will have taken the cable car beforehand, otherwise they would not have needed tickets. But they no longer need artificial snow.
And if snow-making is no longer worthwhile, then the railways don’t do it because they have to keep an eye on the money. After all, a few years ago she put 57 million euros into her own renewal, 10.5 million of which from the Free State, which still likes to promote snow cannons. But for the Jennerbahn, the constant snowmaking down to the valley is now too expensive for the few skiers.