Read news from:
Austria
SHARE
COPY LINK

WEATHER

French ski resorts forced to close due to lack of snow

Unusually warm temperatures over Christmas and New Year have led to melting snow - and French ski resorts in the Alps, Pyrenees and Jura mountains are being forced to close because of the lack of snow.

Published: 2 January 2023 15:00 CET
French ski resorts forced to close due to lack of snow
A stopped chairlift at Le Semnoz ski resort, near Annecy, as the resort had to close temporarily due to the lack of snow. (Photo by JEFF PACHOUD / AFP)

Many of France’s lower-altitude resorts were only able to keep their doors open for a few weeks before temperatures rose too high for snow to remain deep enough for winter sports. 

The period immediately after Christmas was the warmest since 1997 in France and much of the country experienced “exceptionally high” temperatures, averaging at least 7 to 8C above seasonal norms.

The Pyrenees

In the French Pyrenees, ten of the resorts 30 resorts have had to close their ski areas in recent days, and as of December 27th only a quarter of ski runs were open for skiing.

One such resort is Ax 3 Domaines, located in Ariège, which closed on Saturday after only being operational for three weeks this winter. It typically employs about 80 people.

Some skiers who had visited Ax 3 Domaines hit stones and rocks during their descents down the mountain, damaging their equipment, as a result of the lack of sufficient snow cover. 

According to Jean-Claude Lorenzon, who owns a ski rental shop at the station, Ax 3 Domaines will not be able to open again until more snow falls.

Two other resorts closed their ski areas just before Christmas – Mourtis, located in Haute-Garonne, which closed on December 22nd, and La Pierre Saint-Martin, located in the Pyrenees-Atlantiques, which closed on December 23rd.

As of January 2nd, forecasters expected temperatures to remain mild during the beginning of January, indicating that the closures could continue at least until the middle of the month.

The Vosges and Jura Mountains

Other skiable parts of France – like the Vosges and the Jura Mountains, have also been heavily impacted by warm temperatures, with less than a quarter of runs open for skiing.

In some places, like the Schlucht resort in the Vosges mountains, ski resort operators have been forced to adapt by opening the chairlift to hikers. “Usually, the week between Christmas and New Year’s Day is the strongest of the season,” Laurent Vaxelaire, the manager of the resort told France Bleu. 

While some resorts have been able to keep certain runs open with artificial snow, the technique is costly and energy intensive, and temperatures have to be near freezing for the machines to work.

The Alps

The Alps have also been affected by rising temperatures, particularly those in the northern part of the range and sections below 2,000 metres. In Haute-Savoie, rain fell instead of snow, forcing the ski resort of Semnoz to close its doors completely during the Christmas holidays.

Another ski resort, Praz de Lyz Sommand experienced flooding after heavy rains just ahead of Christmas.

And at the resort Les Gets, part of the famous Portes de Soleil ski area, only had two runs open on January 2nd. 

According to projections Météo France, by 2050, the availability of snow cover in mid-mountain areas will be reduced to 10 to 40 percent current thickness due to the climate crisis.

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.

PARIS 2024 OLYMPICS

‘No air conditioning’ ambition melts away for Paris Olympic village

The Paris Olympic village, which was designed without air conditioning to reduce carbon emissions, will be fitted with 2,500 temporary cooling units when athletes arrive later this month, organisers said on Tuesday - albeit at the expense of the countries who have demanded AC.

Published: 2 July 2024 16:23 CEST
'No air conditioning' ambition melts away for Paris Olympic village

The complex in a northern suburb of Paris was built as a showcase of environmentally friendly technology and has a geothermal cooling system that uses cool water pumped from deep beneath the ground.

But the lack of air-conditioning has long worried some national Olympic teams, whose athletes are concerned about missing sleep, particularly given the summer heat waves suffered by Paris in recent years.

Organisers devised a compromise that enabled teams to order portable air-conditioning units at their own expense, which can be installed for the duration of the July 26th – August 11th Olympics.

“The aim was to provide a very specific solution for athletes who are facing the match or competition of their lives.. and who might have requirements for their comfort and recovery which are higher than in a normal summer,” the deputy director of the village, Augustin Tran Van Chau, said on Tuesday.

“Around 2,500 ACs have been ordered,” he told journalists during a visit to the village for the media.

The accommodation complex comprises 7,000 rooms in total, with the geothermal cooling system guaranteeing temperatures inside at least 6C below those outside.

The roughly 40 low-rise towers will host around 10,000 Olympians, and then 5,000 Paralympians during the Paralympic Games from August 28th – September 8th.

The mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, who heads the Olympics infrastructure group Solideo, had ruled out using portable air-conditioners in the village last year.

“I have a lot of respect for the comfort of athletes, but I think a lot more about the survival of humanity,” she told French radio France Info in February 2023.

The influential US Olympic team is known to have pushed for the provision of air-conditioning.

“We raised a lot of issues early on and they (organisers) have met those needs, like air conditioning for athletes in the village,” Rocky Harris, chief of athlete services for the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC), told AFP in February.

“Those things are important because of sleep and health and wellness for the athletes.”

The Paris Games is aiming to reduce its total carbon emissions to half the level of previous editions in London in 2012 and Rio de Janeiro in 2016.

As well as the “eco-friendly” village that includes low-carbon building materials, organisers are mostly relying on temporary stadiums or renovated old ones, instead of building new venues.

Only two new permanent venues will be used during the Games.

Meat products have also been reduced on menus at the village and at sports venues, with the temporary stadium hosting the skateboarding and BMXing at Place de la Concorde set to be 100-percent vegetarian.

SHOW COMMENTS