Bavaria, Black Forest, Thuringia, North Rhine-Westphalia: roads in ski areas are blocked

Icon: enlarge

Road block on Sunday in Winterberg: access prohibited

Photo: Henning Kaiser / dpa

The pictures of overcrowded toboggan runs and ski slopes caused a sensation across the country last weekend: Too many people in a confined space, that is a major health risk in the pandemic even outside of closed rooms.

Now more and more winter sports resorts are deciding to prevent such a rush in the future: In

Bavaria

, the authorities have announced increased controls by the police for the particularly popular excursion regions with a view to Epiphany. 

Saxony-Anhalt's

Interior Minister Michael Richter (CDU) had already announced on Monday that he would consider blocking the access roads to the Brocken.

Avoid the next traffic chaos

Ski

slopes, toboggan slopes and parking spaces are also closed to visitors at the weekend

in the winter sports resort of Willingen in

North Hesse

.

"With the mass of day-trippers, minimum distances were neither observable nor controllable - even outdoors," said Karl-Friedrich Frese, the head of health for the Waldeck-Frankenberg district.

They therefore saw no other option than the ban on entry.

The access roads to the Schwarzer Mann and Wolfsschlucht winter sports areas in

Rhineland-Palatinate

are still fully closed until Sunday.

On Tuesday, the direct access to the Erbeskopf in the Hunsrück was closed due to the difficult weather conditions.

The snow-covered Deister ridge near Hanover also attracted many people.

The police spoke of a tense traffic situation and overcrowded parking lots.

In

North Rhine-Westphalia

, several winter sports resorts also want to block the roads to their ski area.

In Reichshof in the Bergisches Land, this should happen next weekend, "to avoid traffic chaos and also to counteract the corona pandemic," said the community.

"Unfortunately it won't work this winter"

Reichshof's Mayor Rüdiger Gennies

"No matter how much we look forward to the snow and the many visitors from the surrounding cities, unfortunately it won't work this winter," said Mayor Rüdiger Gennies.

The community had not put lifts and trails into operation anyway.

Previously, Winterberg in the

Sauerland

had already

blocked slopes and parking spaces.

The municipality of Hellenthal in the

Eifel also closed

the parking spaces at excursion destinations after a rush of day trippers at the weekend.

"The situation is a little more relaxed," said a representative of the 8,000-inhabitant community the day after the measures began.

City employees checked on site whether parking bans and corona regulations were being observed.

With a view to the coming weekend, the mayors of Hellenthal and the neighboring towns in the Euskirchen district want to coordinate, as the spokesman said.

The neighboring communities had also suffered from the onslaught: People sometimes used gardens as toilets and parked cars wildly on the roadside and in meadows.

In other federal states, too, those responsible are considering more drastic measures, for example in

Thuringia

: After talks with the interior ministry and the police, Oberhof's mayor Thomas Schulz sees a way for the planned closure of the winter sports community for non-residents, as he said on request: »I am more as confident that we will come to a sensible solution. "

He has in mind that controls will take place at the town entrances, through which only those who can prove a legitimate interest will be allowed, said Schulz.

This included residents, suppliers and service providers as well as the participants and officials of the Biathlon World Cup, which starts there on Friday.

"If it gets out of hand, we have to close down"

"A certain number of day tourists is certainly conceivable, but if it gets out of hand, we have to close down," said Schulz.

He cannot say whether Oberhof will be the destination of day trippers from Saxony-Anhalt and Bavaria on Wednesday.

January 6th is a public holiday in both federal states.

No spectators are admitted to the World Cup on the weekend and a second one in the coming week, the area is completely closed.

According to Schulz, more than 10,000 tourists have flocked to the city in the past few days.

Cars were sometimes parked in fire service driveways and other security-relevant places: "The whole city was parked."

Measures against mass tourism can also

be expected

in the

Black Forest

and the

Swabian Alb

.

Given the ongoing onslaught of day trippers, the local authorities and the police want to take action against the crowd and traffic chaos.

Above all, the conditions on the federal highway 500 were recently extreme, said a spokesman for the Ortenaukreis.

Icon: The mirror

mxw / dpa