The news had been expected but it was still a shock. After two very difficult winters and mounting losses local councillors voted 48 to 12 to pull the plug on both cross country and alpine skiing in the resort of the Alpe du Grand Serre located near Grenoble in the French Alps. This is no two-bit ski area on a low lying col but a claimed 55 km of ski runs with an extensive lift system with the bottom of the pistes at 1400 meters altitude. Typical of many bigger ski areas in France. At the start of last winter's all important winter holiday period the ski area had just two green runs open. Somewhat prophetically L'effet du Serre is French for global warming.
l'Alpe du Grand Serre, February 2024
The resort suffers from a number of problems that make it vulnerable to climate change. The access from Grenoble is via a tricky, cold, north facing switchback road and there is a lack of accommodation in resort making it reliant on day trippers. The aging lifts also needed 26 million € of investment. The regional authorities were prepared to find 17 million € and the SATA which runs l’Alpe d’Huez and les Deux Alpes was interested in running the ski area for two years but that still left a large shortfall to be covered by a collective of local councils at a time when money is very tight.
Two hundred jobs depend on the alpine skiing in the resort. The closure has been described as the “brink of a major social crisis for the French mountains” by a local politician. The Alpe du Grand Serre is no stranger to closure. The linked ski area of St Honore shut since the mid 90s and is now a ghost town.
Is this the end of the road? Maybe some lifts will be opened using volunteers as has happened at St Pierre de Chartreuse and St Hilaire du Touvet. The commune will now discuss what the future is for the resort. The area is a favourite with local ski tourers as the grassy slopes can be skied with very little snow at the start of winter.
It is not the only ski resort making difficult decisions. Metabief in the Jura has decided to close the Piquemiette sector of its domain, 30% of its ski area this winter and the most interesting part of the domain with a short black run. The closure is the first step towards closing alpine skiing in 2035. The ski area is situation between 890 and 1420 meters altitude. Lower than the Alpe du Grand Serre but the area is further north and in a colder region.
Tanet in the Vosges will also not open this winter. The ski station has seen its season reduced to just 15 days per season in the last 5 years. It was 25 a decade ago. The ski area costs the local council 60,000 euros to run and no-one has offered to take over the management. Laguiole in the Ardeche, with 10 ski lifts and 15 pistes is also looking at its future. It was only able to operate in January last season.