Industry News
Glacier 3000 in Switzerland was forced to close its most famous run, the Black Wall. The Black Wall is considered one of the steepest slopes in the world and is the steepest black run in Switzerland. The slope had developed massive cracks, making skiing on the Black Wall extremely dangerous.
The slope was opened in the 2022/2023 season and runs 1.9 miles (3 kilometers) down from the Col du Pillon. It is accessible through a tunnel and covers 3,280 feet (1,000 meters) in vertical, with a gradient of 46° in the steepest section.
Recent warm temperatures made the snowpack unstable and caused cracks and subsequent slides in the snowpack. The head of mountain operations at Glacier 3000 was quoted as saying that he had never seen anything like this in his 30-year career.
Glacier 3000 ski resort is located 20 minutes from Gstaad and 40 minutes from Montreux, Switzerland. The resort is owned by Gstaad local Marcel Bach and the billionaires Bernie Ecclestone and Jean-Claude Mimran. The billionaire trio bought Glacier 3000 in 2005 and successfully turned a bankrupt ski area into a year-round mountain playground. The group invested heavily in the infrastructure, adding many attractions, like a peak-to-peak suspension bridge, an ice cave, tobogganing, and dog sledding. Through these measures, they managed to give the resort a much-needed boost and extended the resort’s season to year-round operations.
