Haute-Savoie
Tuesday, 29 January, 2008
Bust up between la Clusaz and the Croix Fry
Over the summer ski resorts have been busy. Improving ski runs modernizing ski lifts and, a key marketing tool, adding links between disparate domains. But not in the Haute Savoie where relations between some resorts have become decidedly frosty, unlike the above average temperatures this January.
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Tuesday, 01 January, 2008
Vallorcine renews off piste ban
The mayor of Vallorcine, Patrick Ancey, has passed a bye-law for the start of the 2007-2008 season banning off-piste skiing in 2 sections of his community and restriction access to a third sector to days when the avalanche risk is less than 3 (Considerable) on a scale of 5. The ban has not gone down well with snow professionals in the Chamonix valley. Mr Ancey is up for re-election in the spring of 2008.
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Friday, 19 October, 2007
Chamonix to have ‘Ski Ambassadors’, more lift openings
A new programme for winter 2007/08 will be started in Chamonix called ‘ski ambassadors’, designed to help tourists at the ski hills find their way around, give information and ‘animate’ the morning ski queues.
Monday, 11 June, 2007
Abondance abandons skiing
The news has sent shockwaves through the Haute-Savoie. The local council at Abondance has voted to close the ski lifts. The ski resort has been loss making for the last 15 years. The local council tried desperately to find a buyer before the start of the season but was forced to run the lifts over the winter. This year’s poor snow was the final nail in the coffin. Requiring over half a million euros in investments the end has none the less brought strong reactions from the 1400 local residents and businesses.
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Tuesday, 01 May, 2007
Ropes removed from Aiguille du Midi
The ropes and other safety equipment on the Aiguille du Midi ridge have been removed. The ridge gives access to the Vallee Blanche off piste as well as many other routes in the Mont-Blanc range such as the 3 Mont Blancs route to the summit of Mont Blanc, Western Europe’s highest summit.
Photo: Tom Rune
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Friday, 09 February, 2007
Three avalanches in Haute-Savoie
Three avalanche incidents in the Haute-Savoie have resulted in minor injuries but are a reminder that the new snow has formed new slabs resting on some fragile layers at altitude on north sector slopes.
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Saturday, 20 January, 2007
St Tropez des Neiges turns forty
Avoriaz, in the Haute-Savoie will officially celebrate its 40th birthday today but the ski resort had a difficult birth, almost going bankrupt until the intervention of Pierre et Vacances boss Gérard Brémond. It’s childhood was no less troubled. The ski resort was the dream of Olympic ski champion Jean Vuarnet. Native of Morzine he had built a cable car to the Avoriaz plateau in 1963 but had run out of money. He contacted Paris based builer Gérard Brémond who was only too happy to work in the mountains.
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Wednesday, 03 January, 2007
Series of avalanche incidents in the Alps
Reports have come in about a serious avalanche incident on the Glacier de Pendant above the Bochard gondola lift at Grands Montets, part of the Chamonix Mont-Blanc ski area. A 20 year old local man was buried under 1 meter of fresh snow at around 11h20. He had left the open Bochard run to ski some off-piste couloirs with a friend who gave the alert.
Probe line at Val d’Isère - photo JC Souillac
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Monday, 01 January, 2007
Val d’Isere for sale?
The rumour has been doing the rounds over Christmas. The Blas family are looking for a cool half Billion euros for the Sofival which controls the ski lifts of Val d’Isère, La Rosière, Valmorel and Avoriaz. The main name in the frame is the Compagnie des Alpes (CdA) which already run 8 of the 12 top French ski resorts including nearby Tignes, la Plagne and les Arcs.
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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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