After closing suddenly in mid-March due to the start of the coronavirus pandemic, the ski resorts of the Catalan Pyrenees, most of them in the hands of the Generalitat, are finalizing their set-up for the first conditional ski season by the Covid, whose second hello causes new uncertainties.
The objective is to open our facilities on November 1 if the weather conditions allow it. We have already carried out all the necessary functional tests and we have also designed a pandemic prevention plan that guarantees that our stations are a safe environment, ”explains the director of the Tourism and Mountain division of Railways of the Generalitat de Catalunya (FGC), Toni Sanmarte.
Among the coronavirus prevention measures that FGC will apply in the six stations it manages –La Molina, Vall de Neria, Vallter 2000 (Girona), Port Ainé, Ski Spot Y Boà TaÃŒll (Lleida) -, highlights the mandatory use of a mask in waiting areas and transport facilities, such as in the chair lifts, and the operation of these at maximum capacity and maximum speed to reduce waiting time in The tail.
 «In the use of the ski lifts we have decided not to limit the capacity because, as a study of the Catalan Association of Ski Resorts and Mountain Activities (ACEM), are a totally safe means of transport for various reasons. The journeys last less than ten minutes, are carried out in the open air, the distances between groups of chairs are at least 15 meters and during the journey, with a speed of five or six meters per second, an air flow is created backwards, which prevents the drops of saliva that one expels from reaching both the person next to them and those on the ski lift behind, ”says Sanmarte.
Likewise, in all the Generalitat stations, the capacity on the ski slopes will not be limited,  «since the surroundings are wide enough for people to disperse according to FGC data in La Molina they can be concentrated up to 8,500 skiers in a single day-, and a compensation policy will be imposed on customers with the partial or total reimbursement of the amounts paid,  «or with the possibility of using the ski pass you have paid for next season», when the resorts cannot offer a minimum of 90 days of skiing during the season due to causes derived from the coronavirus.
Other measures promoted by FGC and which will also promote the rest of the privately-owned Catalan ski resorts, such as Masella (Girona) o Baqueira (Lleida), are the reservation and purchase of ski passes online.  The idea is for the customer to go directly from the sofa to the lift, without going through the ticket office, avoiding physical contact or crowds at the points of sale, as well as the handling of physical money», says the communication manager from Masella, Ramon Boter.
The Catalan Nordic ski resorts, including that of Guils Fontanera (Girona), Les The Tavascan (Lleida), are those that foresee a more successful winter. Â «Unlike alpine ski resorts, our facilities can accommodate 200 people spread over tens of square kilometers on a busy day. There are also no chair lifts or ski lifts, so there are no queues. All this makes us think, as has happened during the summer, that our resorts will attract more people than usual to practice cross-country skiing or go on a snowshoe excursion, ”says the technique of the Commonwealth of Nordic Ski Resorts -which groups together the seven Catalan Nordic ski resorts-, Imma Obiols.
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