We‘re skiing in Flims/Laax/Falera this week, and have been wondering: is it normal/usual to have several lifts closed for days on end because of strong winds?
Someone on a lift told us the closures due to wind have been getting a lot worse in recent years, one person implied that mission control is getting more sensitive, another said that winds have gotten a lot more strong in recent years. I wanted to research that and found nothing except [one article from 20min](https://amp.20min.ch/story/werden-in-laax-keine-winterferien-mehr-machen-497560856111) where it‘s not clear if this was bad luck or a trend.
There‘s also the fact that half the slopes are closed rn, with about 108km slope open but I gather that is due to a lack of snow, and someone on a lift told us parts of the area can‘t be artificially snowed.
Anyone have additional insights? Is this a consequence of changing weather, or are regulations regarding lift safety getting stricter? Or were we just unlucky with the timing?
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There are more ski lifts, so logically a day of strong wind will nowadays affect more lifts than in the past. Also the shift from drag lifts to chairlifts doesn’t help.
I worked in laax 2020-21 season and been on lifts that were closed due to wind, trust me you dont want to be on those gondolas when there are strong winds. We once waited 40mins infront of the gondola station because the gondola couldnt get into it due to it swinging to hard.
Closing the lifts is something they dont want todo but need to due to regulations and they usually plan a day ahead due to their workers needing informations. So if they see they cant operate the drag lift on Vorab tomorrow morning, they wont open it at all even if you could open it in the afternoon because they then lack man power to do so.
In my experience, late Jan/early Feb is a likely time for ski lift closures due to wind. It gets better later in the season.
Not helping you right now. If you can get to Lenzerheide they often have more terrain available in adverse weather conditions.
Laax is amazing with good weather, this season hasn’t been great so far.
I was stuck on one of those 5 years ago because of wind, trust me, you don’t want to be on those…
I’m on laax every weekend. it’s normal like that, there have been days when the lifts didn’t run at all. it sucks but there’s nothing anyone can do about it.
There are more winter storms nowadays. Back in the days the big storms were in harvest and spring. But now its more like harvest half winter long.