About 9,000 square meters (97,000 square feet) of reflective foil has been spread across a ski area on one side of the 2,962 meter (116,600 foot) high Zugspitze in the northern Alps near Garmisch-Partenkirchen.
This year, the Zugspitzbahn company, which finances the cover-up from revenues from its ski-lift, gondola-lifts and restaurant, ordered 50 percent more tarpaulin than last year. The tarps were unpacked one week earlier than usual following a particularly mild winter and the hottest April in recent history.
"The cover keeps off the heat and channels away rainwater," said Manfred Haas, who manages a team that grooms the ski area with bulldozers and graders. "Every autumn we make note of where the glacier has melted the most and cover those places the following spring."
Postponing the inevitable
