- The Mourtis resort in the Pyrenees announces its temporary closure due to the lack of snow.
- The problem is accentuated for all the mid-altitude stations of the massif.
A few days before the February holidays, we can speak of a large tile. The Pyrenean resort of Mourtis announced on Tuesday on its Facebook page to be obliged to close, "for an indefinite period", its ski area. For the simple reason that there is no more snow.
“The last temperatures we had caused what was left to melt. There is no longer any possibility of descending on skis, ”said AFP, Hervé Pouneau, the director of the mixed union managed by the Haute-Garonne departmental council and which includes three stations (Le Mourtis, Luchon Superbagnères and Bourg Oueil).
This small mid-mountain resort, which includes 19 runs, three of which are black, is located between 1,350 and 1,860 meters above sea level. On January 19, two young women were injured in a tobogganing accident reportedly due to the lack of snow.
The future in black
Le Mourtis is not the only Pyrenean site to suffer from the incredible warmth of February and the poor general snowfall. A few valleys away, at Luchon Superbagnères, we cross our fingers. "We closed a sector, but we managed to keep the whole part located at altitude," says Hervé Pouneau. Conservation is easier on this part of the estate. We hope to be able to keep this access for the start of the holidays, hoping that the snow will come later. It would not take much… 40 centimeters of snow and we leave. ”
The anxiety is generalized for medium mountain resorts, which start from 1,500 meters.
The Pyrenees massif represents 10% of the French ski market. According to French and Spanish researchers from the Pyrenean Climate Change Observatory, the snowpack could melt in half by 2050.
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