Mama, where is the snow?” asks a little boy on the train just before Bischofshofen. The mother timidly points to the isolated patch of snow below a rocky peak. “So little!” is the junior’s disappointed reply. And he’s right, because it can hardly get any worse at the beginning of January: the pre-Christmas snow has thawed a lot even at high altitudes, and the temperatures at the mountain stations don’t even drop below freezing at night, so snow cannons can’t be used. The remaining pistes are being nibbled mercilessly to the left and right by the thaw, and appreciable fresh snow is only promised for the time being. The bizarre images of the green slopes, which are criss-crossed by white artificial snow bands, appear in the German and Austrian media. Climate change is once again vehemently remembered in the Salzburg region and in the entire Alpine region.
Carpenter in summer, ski instructor in winter
But then it does snow, and the little mountain village of Filzmoos immediately lives up to its reputation as a snow hole. In the north of the Dachstein massif, there is always much more snow than in the near and far surroundings. Eugen Stadler, carpenter in summer and ski instructor in winter, tells of the officially certified truth of this phenomenon: According to official regulations, he has to build the roofs in Filzmoos more solidly than in the neighboring communities of Radstadt or Altenmarkt so that they can bear the regular snow load. And even this caution is not always enough, so that after heavy snowfalls he often enough turns from ski instructor to snow shovel to free roofs that are particularly at risk from excessive pressure.