Several ski resorts in the Alps and Pyrenees will postpone their opening scheduled for the end of November, for lack of sufficient snow to function properly, their operators have indicated.
This is particularly the case of Val Thorens (Savoie), which planned to launch its winter season on Saturday and postponed the opening for a week, a consequence of “the particularly mild weather in the fall”.
"Currently the snow cover at altitude is satisfactory, but does not allow a ski-in ski-out return to the resort", explained the resort in a press release this week.
“The snow is coming, the cold too”
Same decision in Val d'Isère and the neighboring resort of Tignes (Savoie), which also postponed their opening for a week, from November 26 to December 3, for the same reasons.
Tignes will content itself with opening a track on its glacier on Saturday.
“There was very little snow, but it's coming, that's it.
The cold too, so don't worry, ”said Olivier Simonin, general manager of Val d'Isère Téléphériques, on Friday.
Eventually, the resort plans to "adjust" its start date of the season to adapt to the changing climate, he added.
Enough water to make artificial snow
In the French Pyrenees, the lack of snow will also delay the start of the ski season, indicates Michel Poudade, president of "Neiges catalanes", a group of ski resorts in the Pyrénées-Orientales.
“We will be roughly a week late in the stations which had announced an opening at the end of November.
And for those who plan to open in early December, we'll see," he said.
The weather does not worry the elected official, who is also mayor of the Angles resort: “They announce cold weather for next week and snow this weekend, so everything can change very quickly”.
And the stations have in reserve "enough water to make artificial snow", he estimates.
On the Andorran side, the Grandvalira, Ordino Arcalís and Pal Arinsal ski resorts should open from December 2 if the weather conditions allow it, although it is not excluded that the slopes could open earlier.
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