The recent severe weather and heavy snow impacting Greece has caused widespread havoc throughout the country for the past couple of weeks. But it is a much-welcomed sight for skiers, who are now treated to their choice of Greek ski resorts, all of which are enjoying 100% snow coverage.
Iraklis Lefoussis, a member of the Association of Greek Ski Resorts, told the Athens-Macedonian News Agency on Wednesday that ski areas throughout Greece are open and fully operational.
Not only do all ski areas and resorts have 100 percent snow coverage; just as importantly, road access to all the ski areas is completely safe.
“In some cases, problems are created when it snows in the cities, but the public should know that the roads to ski areas are almost always open and clear,” noted Lefoussis. He added that “snow plows and sweepers are working round the clock to keep them clear of snow, and the drivers of the machines are very experienced.”
He encouraged all winter sports fans, as well as and people who just love snow-covered landscapes, to make an excursion to the mountains, provided they carry snow chains for their vehicle tires. Just because congested city driving is an issue in the snow, this does not mean that people should avoid taking off for the open roads to the mountains.
However, even with the recent snowstorms, Lefoussis does not expect larger crowds at ski areas this year than the nation saw during the 2017-2018 season. Although he acknowledged that it was too soon to make firm predictions, he noted that the figures to date indicate that the numbers of skiers in northern Greece may be down 30 percent compared to 2017-2018.
A 10-percent drop in skiing activity is expected at the ski resorts of southern Greece.
He clarified, however, that this lower estimate is based solely on the figures to date this year, and that weather forecasters are predicting successive snowstorms over the next two months in Greece.
If these predictions prove correct, he added, this will be a huge boon to all Greek ski resorts, provided that potential visitors are not unnecessarily “terrorized” about prevailing weather conditions and road safety.
With information from ANA-MPA
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