“Snowing ski resorts by helicopter is not an option. The Minister for the Ecological Transition tapped the table on Sunday after the Haute-Garonne's decision to dump snow by helicopter at the Luchon-Superbagnères resort in the Pyrenees. Elisabeth Borne promises to bring together the players concerned in the coming days. But is it really possible to ski green?
While the season is in full swing during this period of school holidays in February, synonymous with holidays in the mountains, the question arises all the more since global warming threatens the survival of mid-mountain resorts.
Bad pick if you chose the resort of Montclar les 2 Vallées, in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, which also decided to transport by helicopter, at the rate of 80 rotations at the end of December, some 200 m 3 of snow in order to ensure the economic balance of its start to the season threatened by an area lacking snow cover.
Well done if you opted for Les Arcs, in the Tarentaise valley, the only resort in France to offer its visitors the possibility of joining its tracks with a ridiculously low carbon footprint: only 3 g / km of CO2 emissions in with the train / funicular option against 135 g / km by car.
A major challenge
The winter sports industry today faces a major challenge. According to a study by the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change), 14 to 25% of the stations will have trouble producing artificial snow because of their too low altitude and rising temperatures. Of the 168 stations that have closed since 1951, most have abandoned their activity due to lack of snow.
Faced with the climatic emergency, but also to meet the demand of a clientele more sensitive to questions related to environmental protection, more and more winter sports resorts are betting on their ecological assets. And some initiatives are truly game-changing. In Serre Chevalier (Hautes-Alpes), for example, the ski lifts are now partly powered by solar and wind energy, with the aim of reaching 30% green energy within two years.
Sliding enthusiasts to sort it out. Opt for “ski factories”, paying little attention to their environment, or choose more responsible sites, for example the seven sites labeled Green Flake (Megève, Chamrousse, Valberg, Châtel and Chamonix-Mont-Blanc in the Alps, La Pierre-Saint-Martin in the Pyrenees, Les Rousses in the Jura).
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Or those that display initiatives that are truly game-changing. In Serre-Chevalier (Hautes-Alpes), the ski lifts now run partly on solar and wind energy. Objective: reach 30% green energy within two years.