Clicking through the news portals with the search term "glacier marriage" doesn't give you the feeling that you've landed on a news site. A Rosamunde Pilcher novel is more like it. There's a long-planned wedding between two of the country's most influential families. But, as in any good kitsch novel, there are also opponents. Another love affair? Maybe there is too. And of course, what should not be missing? A showdown. Intrigue. And: the happy ending.
Why not simply combine the obvious?
But from the beginning: as a child, I was always fascinated by the view from Rettenbachferner over to Pitztal. Just one descent away, my 12-year-old self thought. There were already initial thoughts about merging the areas back then. More rumors than concrete project plans. And yet, many people thought like me back then. If it's just the one run, why not build just one lift.
Well, yes. As we know, the plan for the so-called glacier marriage is not quite so discreet: the area around the Linker Fernerkogel is to be made accessible with three gondolas and a shared cable car center below the Braunschweiger Hütte. There would be 64 hectares of pistes on Karles-, Hangenden- and Mittelbergferner, including a reservoir and snowmaking facilities. Of this, 95 percent of the piste area would be on glaciers. The marriage would create the largest glacier ski area in the world. Jakob Falkner, Managing Director of Bergbahnen Sölden, tries to explain the project as follows: "I hope that we can build our project. Because it is a wonderful offer that customers are looking for. There have been studies with our customers for 15 years and there are always three things that stand out: Size of the ski resort, snow reliability and slopes."
So here we have them, the two powerful families or ski resorts that want to marry up in the soap opera to become the absolute superpower. Set up by the machinations of the sly family bosses aka lift operators.
