Environment
Wednesday, 04 July, 2007
It’s not climate change, stupid!
The director of les 7 Laux has bit back at media reports that climate change caused the closure of Abondance and Céüze. In the case of Céüze, although lifts were silent ski tourers were able to climb to the top of the bowl until Easter. He sees the problem more as a poorly positioned and marketed product that hasn’t responded to changing clientelle.
The future: high altitude skiing accessed by telecabines
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Tuesday, 19 June, 2007
Val Thorens Tarps Glacier
Local ski instructor Philippe Martin summed up the problem “This map, it is 20 years old, you see all these areas marked as glaciers, come back this summer and you will see they are gone”. Val Thorens may be the highest ski resort in Europe but even its lofty summits and twinkling glaciers are suffering from the changing climate. The resort is fighting back. From the spring of 2008 the Savoie resort, on the edge of the Vanoise National Park, plans to cover part of its glacier with a giant tarpaulin.
Glaciers at Val Thorens, snow covered, but for how long?
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Tuesday, 24 April, 2007
French ski resorts saved by artificial snow
Last year French turnover for French ski lifts passed the billion euro milestone for the first time. It is estimated that the industry as a whole (equipment, accommodation, après-ski, travel) is worth around 6 billion euros for the French economy. Those Halcyon days are but a dim memory as industry profits have suffered a meltdown after a winter of above average temperatures and bad press reports.
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Sunday, 25 February, 2007
Winter Cancelled
The winter of 2007 has been one of the hottest on record in France with temperatures 3° to 4°C above average in some areas. The warm period began in the middle of March 2006 with only a couple of cold snaps at the start of June and August. The summer was sweltering, nearly as hot as the 2003 heatwave that killed an estimated 15,000 people. Although the last couple of weeks have finally seen some weather fronts move across France, especially the Western Pyrenees, Northern and Hautes Alps the snow line has fluctuated between 1000-2400 meters and snow levels have not improved dramatically.
Lack of snow below 2000 meters
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Friday, 23 February, 2007
The Trilogy: 17,000 vertical feet on skis and bikes in a day
Ski tourers like to pride themselves with their green credentials. After all they ski where the snow falls naturally and don’t use energy consuming lifts, earning their turns in the process. Is all this self congratulation justified? A recent survey by the French website Skitour showed that out of over 300 participants over a third were prepared to drive more than 160 km to go skiing.
Wheelie hard!
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Wednesday, 24 January, 2007
Ski resorts unite to save the planet?
Last weekend conferences at two French ski resorts looked into the future. Courchevel hosted the International Conference for Durable Development and Avoriaz, Wintersports resorts for a better world. The Avoriaz conference was attended by none other than Betony Garner of the Ski Club of Great Britain. According to the blurb faced with climate change, increasing travel and the need to protect biodiversity and a sustainable management of energy and water, winter sports areas are starting to act to manage the environmental impact of ski resorts and to design the ecological station of the future.
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Thursday, 21 December, 2006
Mayor of Chamonix sees red
The mayor of Chamonix, Michel Charlet has described plans to paint the summit of Mont-Blanc red as “stupid and illegal”. A Danish artist, Marco Evaristti wants to colour the summit of Western-Europe’s highest mountain with fruit based pigments to draw attention to the pollution in the Alps caused by tourism. Charlet told the AFP news agency that there has been a earlier project to “paint the glaciers blue” by another team and said that Evaristti was a self-publicist.
Artist’s impression of the red Mont-Blanc
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Thursday, 14 December, 2006
Final Solution for Flaine
The French Alpine ski resorts are known for their rugged slopes. Normally these kind of runs need close to a meter of snow in order to be skiable. The high mountain terrain can also be challenging to less than expert skiers. One of the consequences of climate change is that snow depths are thinner, particularly at the start of the season. Snow canons can be used to lay down base but they are costly to run both in terms of water and energy resources.
Durable development?
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Thursday, 30 November, 2006
Ax and Andorra to link
Following the construction by Pomagalski of the Bonsacre gondola lift that links the town of Ax-les-Thermes to the ski slopes the Ariege resort has experienced a property boom and the lift company has doubled its turnover over the last five years. The local economy has also been helped by some exceptional winters and a new autoroute link with Toulouse.
The land of Princess - still a long way off
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Friday, 13 October, 2006
Oisans Express
Looking across from the slopes of l’Alpe d’Huez it seems that you could almost reach out and touch the ski runs of les Deux Alpes. Dreams of linking the two resorts have been around for a long time. At its closest just 3km separates the south-west facing slopes of les Grandes Buffes to the east of Auris from the Mont de Lans chair lift. The opening of the massive Vanoise Express cable car in 2004 lent credibility to the idea that the Romanche Valley could also be spanned, linking these two giants of Dauphiné skiing.
Artist’s impression of the Oisans Express
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