Snow joke: Austria ski resort reopens for the first time in May

Copyright REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann

By Euronews

Published on 16/05/2019 - 14:57 GMT+2 •Updated 19:12

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A ski resort in Austria will reopen this weekend for the first time in May after unprecedented heavy snowfall.

Hochkar, located in the Austrian Alps about 150 kilometres from Vienna, had between 70 and 130 centimetres of snow last weekend.

"We were in the middle of the preparations for the summer season", said the station's director Rainer Rohregger.

"But the ice saints days brought cold temperatures and heavy snowfall, which led us to think of re-opening the slopes."

The station, between 1,300 and 1,800m above sea level, had closed down on April 7 and seen temperatures reach as high as 25℃ since.

It's the first time the resort has reopened in May and, to celebrate, it has announced that access to its slopes would be free all weekend.

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