If ski hills can guarantee snow, those around Gstaad, Switzerland, will certainly be among them.

The company managing a half dozen ski areas around Gstaad hopes to have half of the snow on its hills come from snow machines by 2012.

Despite the economic crisis, the Berbahnen Destination Gstaad (BDG) company is continuing to invest heavily in their winter sports improvement plan for its giant Swiss ski area encompassing 250km of piste surrounding Gstaad. The total €105 million ($156m) improvement plan runs through to 2018.

The next stage of theinvestment is already underway: an extension to the number of artificial snow machines in the resort. After the snow machines are in operation, the focus will switch to increasing the number of ski lifts in the area, a measure that will cost €13 million ($20m).

In announcing the scheme, BDG Director Armon Cantieni advised that the introduction of more artificial snow machines is essential to allow Gstaad to guarantee ample snow all winter long.

“The aim is to increase artificial snow production so that in three years time, 50% of snow will be produced this way. Over the 11.8 kilometres of pistes being equipped with snow cannons, snow cover from mountain top to valley floor will be guaranteed, with around [€11.6 million] allocated to this particular project so far,” said Cantieni.

For winter 2009, there will only be slight modifications to the ski lifts with a new lift installed in Gstaad and the Wispile ski tow being demolished. The famous Horneggli Restaurant on top of the mountain was totally refurbished over the summer.

Gstaad Mountain Rides is one of the largest ski and snowboarding areas in the Bernese Alps, where winter sports can be practised from mid-October at Glacier 3000 near Les Diablerets right through to the beginning of May.

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