Closure of the slopes at Brauneck: Night-time descent can cost your life
Created: 12/21/2021, 6:30 AM
By: Veronika Ahn-Tauchnitz
Signs also indicate that the piste will be closed at night during the preparation work.
Video shows what happens when you hit the rope © arp
The Brauneck is not only very popular with skiing and snowboarding, but also with tourers.
What is not a problem during the day can be fatal in the evening or night.
Lenggries - Antonia Asenstorfer, spokeswoman for the Alpen-Plus ski areas, to which the Brauneck also belongs, once again explicitly points out the no-night access to the slopes.
“We have a lot of understanding for the athletes and don't want to scare anyone away,” but entering the slopes at night is forbidden - and it's “simply very dangerous,” says Asenstorfer.
At the moment, however, many tourers are out and about again in the evening.
Snow groomers hang on long steel ropes during grooming
The slopes on Brauneck are closed between 6 p.m. and 8 a.m.
During this time, the slopes are groomed.
To do this, the snow groomers hang on very long steel cables in order to cope with the work in the steep terrain.
There can be up to a kilometer between the fastening of the rope and the slope preparation machine.
For winter sports enthusiasts who ski down at night, the ropes cannot be seen, also because they sometimes lie flat in the snow and suddenly snap up when they tighten.
What happens when a skier hits these wind ropes can be seen very clearly in a YouTube video that the mountain railway recorded together with the mountain rescue service.
Such an accident was simulated with a dummy.
"In the angle at which you are hit by the rope, it will surely end fatally"
The misconception that you are particularly safe when you drive along the rope is also being cleared up.
This is because diversions are often used.
If one of them doesn't hold up, the rope snaps away and hits the winter sports enthusiast with full force.
"In the angle at which you are hit by the rope, it will definitely end fatally," says spokesman Rolf Frasch from the ski watch in the video.
Track in the freshly groomed slope freezes overnight and can lead to falls
But there is also a not inconsiderable danger from the nocturnal departures themselves.
They leave tracks in the freshly groomed slopes, "which freeze over overnight," says Asenstorfer.
At these points there is a considerable risk of falling for skiers the next day.
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