Austrian police have been swamped with the wrong kind of snow at ski resorts this winter, with lines of cocaine replacing mulled wine at chalet parties.

This Christmas has been whiter than usual. Police say that cocaine and Ecstasy consumption at the bars of après-ski establishments has risen steeply at premium winter resorts, with recorded drug offences rising 60 per cent in some areas popular with British tourists.

Police say that even ski instructors and bartenders are turning into part-time drug-dealers at the peak of the season.

“It has become normal to get not only drinks but also cocaine right there at the bars of the establishments,” Major Christian Voggenberger, of the Salzburg criminal police, said. According to him, the worst-affected hot-spots are Obertauern and other popular ski resorts around Salzburg.

Obertauern, one of Europe's top resorts, has a glitzy reputation dating back to 1965, when the Beatles travelled there to make their film Help!.

Today it is advertised as a family resort, but its slogan, “It's Snowtime”, could assume an entirely new meaning as snorting cocaine seems to be replacing alcohol to combat the cold.

Similar trends are being seen in other regions.

In the Tyrol, where drug-related offences quadruple during the winter holiday season, internet forums aimed at skiers and snowboarders make no secret of the illicit goings-on at the resorts.

Faced with rising drug crime, Austrian police are deploying special investigators during the ski season to sniff out part-time dealers. “One needs to react quite quickly. When someone only appears in a ski resort two or three times, there are obviously not many opportunities to catch them while they smuggle narcotics,” Major Voggenberger said.

Officials in the tourist trade, whose livelihood depends on the resorts' pristine reputation, have sought to play down the seriousness of the cocaine scourge on the piste.

“I don't know any colleagues working in gastronomy who are drug dealers. It would be better if we all focused on the real snow,” Walter Veith, the head of the Salzburg hoteliers' association said.

The association of ski instructors also protested, insisting that the police were speaking of “isolated cases”.

After a public outcry, Major Voggenberger was reportedly disciplined for his comments, while his superior, Commander Ernst Kröll, suggested that drug crime was a problem of society and not related to tourism. “People are bored and have money. The drug rings are like a hydra, you cut off one head and another springs up,” he said.

The habit is not unique to Austria, and seems to be spreading across the Alps.

In neighbouring Switzerland, authorities also reported an increase in the use of cocaine by international tourists in resorts such as the famed southern Alpine retreat of St Moritz.

Times Recommends

• Tehran cannot live up to its rhetoric
• The new unicycle that will ‘change the world’
• We cannot wish away Iran’s bomb