Snow shows at last in Alps but too late to save festive skiing holidays
SNOW has finally started falling in the Alps after weeks of unseasonably warm weather, but too late for thousands of families travelling home this weekend, their ski holidays ruined.
Skiers flying out this week can expect far better conditions, with massive snowfalls forecast for the next few days. Some resorts took desperate measures to keep open even a few pistes for New Year holidaymakers, flying in snow by helicopter despite complaints from environmental groups.
Nathalie Faure, spokesman for the resort of Courchevel, said yesterday: “Snow is falling from an altitude of 1,100 metres and it is providing good cover on the ski runs.”
Marlène Giacometti, head of the tourism office at Les Menuires in the Three Valleys ski area, said up to a metre was expected to fall on higher slopes by the end of this week.
She acknowledged half the runs at the resort were closed over the festive holiday, but said accommodation was still 95 per cent occupied despite the lack of snow and guests had made the best of what was available.
“People have still been able to take advantage of the cafe terraces and hiking trails during the sunny weather, and children have still been able to take part in skiing classes,” she said.
With so few runs open at Les Menuires, Val Thorens and Méribel, locals were asked to leave pistes clear for holidaymakers. Manmade snow was used where temperatures were low enough, but doctors warned it tends to create icier, more hazardous conditions.
The lack of snow at low-altitude resorts has seen an increase in accidents because of overcrowding on the few runs open. A 17-year-old British skier died in Méribel last month after he fell on a slope, hitting his head.
Several resorts moved snow on to pistes by helicopter, prompting claims they were causing an “environmental disaster” by raising pollution levels.
Anne Marmottan of the tourism office at Saint-Foy-Tarentaise which has nine of 20 slopes open, said it had been essential to airlift 100 tonnes to avoid more runs closing: “Stones were starting to poke through at the top of one slope,” she added.
Hervé Billard, head of the snow committee at the Rhône-Alpes Federation for the Protection of Nature, called the use of helicopters an “ecological scandal” as it “costs money and pollutes”.
About 120,000 people are employed in the French ski industry, most of them as seasonal workers, and only 40 per cent have found work this winter, according to reports.