No Need For Wet Feet At Futuristic Ski-Resort

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30364, 13 February 1964, Page 19

No Need For Wet Feet At Futuristic Ski-Resort

(N.ZJ>.A.-Reuter)

GENEVA.

Like bathing beauties who hate to get their bikinis wet, winter sports visitors will not need to put a foot in the snow at a “ski-resort of the future,” being built in Switzerland.

High up in the Valais mountains, near the Great St. Bernard pass to Italy, Europe’s first “indoor” ski resort will open its dooirs in the winter of 1964-65. Hotels, restaurants, bars and shops will all be linked by passages, covered with transparent material, or glass. Only the main street and, of course, the ski slopes, will be exposed to the asperity of the elements at an altitude of 1900 metres (over 10,000 feet). Construction of the new luxury resort, to be known as “Bourg- Saint-Bernard,” over an area of 5.5 square kilometres, will cost over 10 million Swiss francs (about £900,000). The Swiss have been thinking of opening up the St. Bernard region to skiers for some time. This is one of the most beautiful parts of the Swiss alps, between Mont Blanc, in France, and the Great St. Bernard pass on the Swiss-Italian border. But for traffic, it used to suffer from too much snow. A covered road will make it accessible the whole year round, combined with the almost-completed St. Bernard tunnel into Italy. Those planning the new resort have-not only thought of luxury hotels and bars which will become the haven for gold lame-trousered “skibunnies,” the winter equivalent of beauties in bikinis; they have also planned a motel with a kitchen in each flat for families on a budget. Magnificent Runs

For those who go to ski, there are 15 miles of magnificent ski-runs nearby. The star run will be. “The Great St. Bernard Tour.” For this, skiers will take a cablecar

up to the Col du Menouve and ski five miles down into Italy. A special bus service will bring them back to the resort by way of the new tunnel.

For those who prefer less energetic ski-ing, there will be a variety of easier and

shorter runs with t-bar-lifts laid out for less experienced skiers and beginners.

Because of the altitude, ski-ing will be possible at the new resort ail the year round except for about two months, August and September.

By 1965, the “super resort,” as the Swiss are calling it, expects thousands of experienced skiers to be racing down the runs, while thousands of beginners wriggle up and down nursery slopes in the company of the traditionally handsome instructors.