A demonstration of skiers to reopen a link: the scene took place in mid-January in Risoul, in the Hautes-Alpes, whose connection with Vars has been closed since the start of the season, for lack of agreement between the operators.
“
Sixty skiers, mainly students, gathered at the Plate de la Nonne chairlift, at an altitude of nearly 1,900 meters.
On some banners, one could read "UVR" for Union Vars-Risoul
“, reported the local TV channel BFM DICI.
Unheard of on the summits.
And a reaction revealing the weight that an affair weighs in the promise to holidaymakers.
The load here is uneven: more than 70% of Risoul customers ski on the slopes from to Vars against only 28% on the reverse scale.
But it is the whole area that the closure of the link penalizes.
Read alsoIn the Southern Alps, two resorts at war and private liaison skiers
Anger rises.
Traders and employees of the ski lifts of the two resorts are demanding the reopening of the White Forest.
A strike notice was even filed for Thursday, February 23, in the middle of school holidays.
It's the latest jolt of a decision that was greeted like an earthquake.
“
The announcement of the non-opening of the Forêt Blanche link had a real psychological impact
,” a regular in the area
told Le
Figaro straight away.
“
Those who come from afar tell themselves that it is not very serious, being especially attached to their station.
But the locals experience it in an animal way, with the impression that they are being put up with a barrier
”, he specified.
To connect is to be attractive
Some 80% of Méribel customers buy a Trois-Vallées pass.
The 3 Valleys / Press photo
All interconnected areas play on the psychological aspect.
To connect is to be attractive.
And the junction has the importance that one makes of it.
Break down the barriers.
With a domain package, you buy a fragment of freedom, the choice of immensity.
The word resonates both in the ears of skiers who are satisfied with gliding over “unkempt” peaks, and in those of professionals, who want to increase skiing at altitude.
Go where the slopes are still white, when, at the bottom, the lack of snow dries up the source of income for resorts that have built their model on white gold... Who would want to do without it?
Read also Ranking of the 200 French ski resorts: snow cover, ski pass prices... Which one is right for you?
Les Trois-Vallées is the connected area par excellence: 600 kilometers of slopes staggered from 1100 m to 3230 meters in altitude connecting Courchevel to Méribel, Val Thorens, Les Menuires, Saint-Martin-de-Belleville, but also to the villages of Orelle and Brides-les-Bains, by gondolas respectively from Val Thorens and Méribel.
If the thaw is felt including on the summits of Tarentaise, this does not prevent the area from turning.
The cruel lack of snow cover on many massifs during the last Christmas holidays even earned them a transfer of customers from other resorts.
But do skiers take advantage of the large ski areas?
Statistically, they are only 8 to 10% to slide each day on other slopes than those of their station.
In the Trois-Vallées, only 20% of the area would thus be used daily.
Nevertheless: 80% of Méribel customers buy a Trois-Vallées ski pass.
A significantly higher proportion in Les Sybelles, also in Savoie, led the six resorts (La Toussuire, Le Corbier, Saint-Sorlin-d'Arves, Saint-Jean-d'Arves, Les Bottières and Saint-Colomban-des-Villards) connected by 136 km of slopes, to be offered this winter only one ski area ski pass.
Read alsoSki: why do the French desert the slopes in the afternoon?
“
More than 85% of skiers already bought it
,” explains Alexandre Maulin, president of the ski lift operating company, Maulin.ski.
The four traditional villages and two resorts created ex nihilo for skiing owe their salvation to the liaison.
“These six stations were of intermediate size and in decline.
In 1998, Maurice Bozon, then mayor of Saint-Colomban-des-Villards, had the idea of linking them.
Gaston Maulin, my father, who was president of the Villarembert Arves-Corbier ski lift company, and Michel Bouvard, senator of Savoy, embarked on the project with him”, explained Alexandre Maulin to us when Le Figaro
came
to
discover this territory.
And the beautiful story of this David against Goliath.
The Paradiski Vanoise Express is 20 years old
In December 2023, it will be 20 years since the Vanoise Express was inaugurated, a 200-seater cable car without a pylon, creating Paradiski.
Aigal-Studio
Because the Sybelles were born between the Belledonne and Maurienne mountains at the same time as Paradiski, the most recent of the large estates, and benefited from the publicity made by this mastodon, which will celebrate in January 2024 the 20th anniversary of the inauguration of the Vanoise Express.
Dizzying 380 meters above the ground, this monumental cable car with 200 seats on 2 levels links Les Arcs to Peisey-Vallandry, La Plagne and its satellite stations, Montchavin-les-Coches and Champagny-en-Vanoise without a pylon.
A set of 425 km of slopes sliding from 1200 meters to 3250 meters in altitude with two glaciers.
Since the existence of the cable car, 30% of customers of the resorts of La Plagne and Les Arcs have opted for the Paradiski pass.
That it breaks down, and "
it's a blow in terms of brand image
", regretted Pierre Gonthier, chairman of the executive board of SELALP, a subsidiary of Compagnie des Alpes operating the Vanoise Express, in 2007. That year, the prototype had to remain docked due to a break in the Z-wires, "the outer skin of the cables".
Read alsoIn La Plagne, last winter of skiing on the “historic” glacier
The brand image is what led to the creation of the sixteen large estates of France.
Let's mention the Espace Killy between Tignes and Val d'Isère which, beyond the figure of 300 kilometers of connected slopes, has imposed its name of champion to praise the quality of its skiing on slopes which have hosted multiple competitions.
Or the Portes du Soleil, which paved the way for cross-border skiing over 650 km between twelve resorts in France and Switzerland.
"These spaces have been flamboyant thanks to the connections"
, underlines Alexandre Maulin, noting that it is necessary to know how to rework them, to invest in a priority sector as was the case with the renovation carried out in Saint-Sorlin in Les Sybelles.
Between Pra Loup and La Fou d'Allos, a capricious connection
In the Southern Alps, two family resorts, Pra-loup and La Fou d'Allos, want to revive their connection created in 1976 but thwarted by both the dilapidated facilities and dependence on natural snow.
"
The Espace Lumière is a capricious link which was designed for ski touring and which descends into a valley bottom, the Agneliers, which is often complicated
", describes the entrepreneur Thierry Auzet, who managed Pra Loup and considers his co-founder, the late Honoré Bonnet, as his
“godfather in the profession”
.
But initiatives are putting the Espace Lumière back in the news: modernized and better-established equipment, preventing skiers from having the fatal breaks in their desire to switch from one side to the other.
"
The ski link project between Pra Loup and La Foux d'Allos will be launched in 2024
", headlined
La Provence
on January 27 .
And the southern daily quoted the president of the Departmental Council, Eliane Bareille, who took this project to heart, including “
The total amount of the project amounts to 43 million euros, just for the connection
”.
The Region has been asked for 10 million euros.
Renaud Muselier would have committed to it, as well as the two communities of communes at the rate of 5 million each.
All hopes for obtaining the missing millions are placed on obtaining by the southern alpine territory the Winter Olympics of 2034 or 2038.
Read alsoVallée de l'Ubaye: sporty and gourmet winter in the Southern Alps
But clinging to white gold by links that are dangerous for the environment obviously arouses the opposition of associations for the defense of ecology.
This is how the connection project between the Albiez and the Karellis in Maurienne (Savoie) has come to a standstill.
Are there marmots in hibernation on the route of the future Albiez-Montrond track?
The hypothesis has sparked controversy.
A petition launched by the environmental association Living and acting in Maurienne to save the marmot has even collected 33,000 signatures.
However, this project is not the only one: five other extensions of ski resorts in the Maurienne have been included in the Scot (territorial coherence scheme) in order to
"optimize the winter offer to adapt it to climate change" and " maintain the
The mayor of the town of Albiez-Montrond, Jean Didier, did not throw in the towel, arguing that the burrows were uninhabited, studies and public inquiry for the Scot, in support.
"
The plantigrade has become the symbol of a biodiversity sacrificed on the altar of all skiing
", denounces
Reporterre
, an activist media.
The impact on the environment is also invited into the debates on the other side of the Pyrenees where a mega-domain project has recently resurfaced.
A stone's throw from Canfranc station, with 300 km of slopes between Astun and Formigal crossing the Canal Roya valley, the Aragon Sky Circus aims to become the largest ski area in the Aragonese Pyrenees.
A dream that, for many, now seems anachronistic.
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