An incessant ballet of dozens of trucks filled with snow rolling down the roads of Grand-Bornand.
The images shocked residents and environmental activists last December.
With a view to hosting its traditional Biathlon World Cup stage, the Grand-Bornand resort had transported 12,000 cubic meters of snow, stored since last season at 1,400 meters above sea level, to bring them to at the stadium, nine kilometers further below.
The controversy then brought to light a practice still unknown to the French public: “snowfarming”, or “snow farms”.
In reality, snowfarming, which consists of recycling snow from one year to the next, is far from being a new technique in Europe.
The quality of the snow cover required by the International Biathlon Union (IBU) to organize a World Cup stage – namely a track 50 centimeters thick for widths ranging from 4 to 9 meters – imposes it.
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