Norwegian Glacier with 12 Metre / 40 Feet Base Opening For 2020 Summer Ski Season on May 1st

Norway’s Folgefonn (“Fonna”) Glacier summer ski area has announced it has reached agreement with its local municipality to open for the ski season from Friday May 1st.

The area, one of three small Norwegian glacier summer ski areas, has been posting pictures of incredible snowfall over the past month and reports the snow lying over 12 metres / 40 feet deep.

It is still in the process of just digging out the access road to the ski area, a job which has been going on for five weeks.

Norway relaxed its lockdown rules slightly last week and now allows small gatherings of people and small ski areas in the country have been able to apply to their local municipalities to ask if they can re-open under strict social-distancing and stringent hygiene conditions. Some have re-opened already for what will be the last few weeks of the season, others have been turned down by local authorities that feel the risks are too great or that their local health facilities could not cope.

These small areas are only opening for local skiers and larger Norwegian ski areas remain too large operations to qualify for potential re-opening and have now said they’ll not be re-opening until next winter.

Fonna’s operators say they sat down with the local municipality to agree the opening conditions which include a maximum 300 lift ticket sales a day, only one person on each T Bar unless its two people from the same family normally living together; tickets must be bought online at least two days in advance and that the centre’s café, kitchen and toilets will all be closed.  There’ll also be no terrain park to cut the danger of injury.

So far there’s no word on when or whether the Galdhopiggen and Stryn summerski centres will open.