Climate change
French ski resort stops operations before the start of the season
Scenes from the past: This will no longer be the case in the French family ski resort of La Sambuy in the future.
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It’s no longer a secret: climate change is threatening the existence of ski areas. In the French Alps, a winter sports area is now completely shutting down operations.
The forecasts for ski tourism are poor, and the climate crisis threatens the existence of numerous ski operators across Europe. The reason: there is a lack of snow. The popular one The La Sambuy ski area in the French Alps is already taking action – and is terminating operations completely.
Jacques Dalex, mayor of the ski resort, which is particularly popular with families, explained in an interview with the US news channel “CNN“that skiing is simply no longer profitable: Instead of having snow from December to March, there is now only “four weeks of snow in the ski area, and even then not much snow.”
La Sambuy: Immediate closure instead of the start of the season
The result: The ski slope is not accessible due to stones and rocks appearing and the operation has to be closed early. Last winter, the ski lifts in La Sambuy only ran for five weeks. According to Dalex, this means an operating loss of around 500,000 euros. And that every year in which the season runs accordingly.
From an economic point of view, this only allows one conclusion: ski operations will be stopped. Even as the ski season approaches, Dalex wants to keep the ski lifts shut down. And he fears that La Sambuy will not be the only place in the French Alps to suffer this fate, as he said in an interview with “CNN”: “All winter sports resorts in France are affected by global warming.”
Petition against the closure of the ski area
A recent study shows that this applies not only to France, but to all of Europe. According to the report published in the journal “Nature Climate Change”, 53 percent of more than 2,000 ski areas examined across Europe are massively threatened by climate change – and the trend is rising.
However, Mayor Dalex’s measure is not well received everywhere. The association “All together for La Sambuy” is campaigning against the closure with a petition and is instead calling for a sustainable way to keep tourism going in the town of 7,500 people. So far there have been 1,900 signatures and the group also wants to take legal action. The last word about the descent in the family ski area doesn’t seem to have been spoken yet. For this year, however, one thing is certain: the ski slopes of La Sambuy will remain closed for the time being.