Paris (AFP)

Bring snow by helicopter to the ski slopes: faced with a disparaged practice and the future of winter sports clouded by climate change, Elisabeth Borne spoke on Thursday of assistance to ski resorts, so that they can adapt to less snowy winters.

The video of a helicopter delivering 50 tonnes of snow last weekend in Luchon-Superbagnères, in the Pyrenees, caused a stir.

During a meeting in Paris with representatives of winter sports resorts, it was decided to have "within six months a complete offer to support resorts to both encourage their virtuous practices in terms of the environment and help them adapt "in the face of global warming, with a tourism model more geared towards the" four seasons, "said Borne on Thursday evening.

We must "accelerate this transition," insisted the minister. Faced with the reduction in snow cover, ski resorts are already considering the development of new activities (hiking, summer tobogganing, mountain biking, etc.).

"We need additional activities to be less dependent on the winter season," added Alexandre Maulin, president of Domaines skiables de France, while wishing that "skiing remains an important part".

Aid could see the day via the Bank of the territories, specified the Secretary of State Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne.

"I am a little disappointed," the president of the Haute-Garonne Montagne joint union, Georges Méric, told AFP after the meeting. "Concretely to move on to the + four seasons +, I did not have a concrete response, from state aid on investments."

"My decision (to transport snow by helicopter) was based on job preservation," he said a few hours earlier. Haute-Garonne manages three medium mountain resorts in difficulty.

If the restaurants, hotels, ski instructors of Luchon-Superbagnères "had spent fifteen days without having a ski school for children, it would have been dramatic, we would certainly lose more than 200 jobs", while the station has already suffered from the lack of snow at Christmas, argued Georges Méric. The operation cost between 5,000 and 6,000 euros.

"In an exceptional situation, exceptional solution!", He further argued, referring to 25 million euros of investment over five years to convert the three stations into "four season" tourism.

Before that, the Montclar station, located at 1,350 meters above sea level in the Alps, had also transported snow by helicopter. The operation then lasted three hours and required 400 liters of diesel.

- Snow threatened in the middle mountains -

For climatologist Valérie Masson-Delmotte, these cases illustrate "the whole complexity of the challenges in managing risks, adapting to a climate that will continue to heat up over the coming decades, while reducing the emission of greenhouse gases greenhouse to limit the extent of the warming thereafter ... "

With climate change, the exceptional risks becoming the norm. The lack of snow is already being felt in mainland France at medium altitude, between 1,200 and 2,000 meters, according to Météo-France. Beyond 2,000 meters, "there is (...) a clear shortening of the duration during which the snow is present".

By 2050, the phenomenon will accelerate further, regardless of the efforts made to combat global warming. "The projections indicate a reduction in the duration of snowfall of several weeks, on average, and in the average winter thickness of 10 to 40%, in average mountain", indicates Météo-France. By the end of the century, if greenhouse gas emissions are not reduced, the snowpack will be "regularly nonexistent in the mountains".

The use of artificial snow will not necessarily be enough to compensate for the disappearance of natural snow and raises the question of water consumption, which will also become a rarer commodity.

"For the period 2030-2050 and for a crop snow cover rate of 45%, the estimated volume is on average around 40 million m3" per year, calculates Météo-France.

© 2020 AFP