In Le Grand-Bornand, the resignation of professionals in the face of the "waste" of a white season - France 24

Le Grand-Bornand (France) (AFP)

A handful of high school students, future ski patrollers-rescuers, have a snack at the foot of a chairlift from which they are the only ones able to benefit.

Below, the resort of Grand-Bornand (Haute-Savoie) seems to be in slow motion, as sounded by the announcement of the government which almost sounded the death knell of the season on Wednesday evening.

In his big red coat, Stéphane Deloche skids and stops at the bottom of the track.

The director of the local ski school, "expected": he will not be able to welcome customers in downhill skiing in early February, as the government decided on Wednesday.

"The instructors, we'll find them an activity that will perhaps be a tenth of what they had the opportunity to do," he blurted out, ski in hand, saying he was "resigned".

His colleague Renaud Laubry is a bit dejected.

His job, usually, is to run this large "resort-village" with 24 ski lifts and 84 km of slopes with around 200 ski patrollers, technicians, ticket clerks and other ski lift employees.

At the foot of the slopes and near an almost empty parking lot, the director of the ski lifts told AFP of his "frustration" at not being able to provide skiers with these "perfect conditions": there are more one meter of snow at the bottom of the chairlift.

With around 25,000 tourist beds, the Aravis massif resort achieves 60% of its overnight stays during the winter months - and the month of February is the real pivot of this mountain economy.

At the tourist office, opposite the village church, phone calls follow one another.

"There are those who decide to cancel their stay," admits its director Isabelle Pochat-Cottilloux, but there are also those who, wishing to maintain their rental, ask "what other activities are available".

For the moment, the resort observes an average occupancy rate of 50% for the four weeks of the February holidays, and hopes to capitalize on a "very wide range of activities" to limit the damage caused by the absence of alpine skiing. .

- "We expected" -

Where alpine skiers usually parade limping in their rigid boots, a few holidaymakers take snowshoes on their feet in the snow-covered streets of the village.

At Patrice and Stéphanie Angelloz-Nicoud, the 20 pairs of ski touring are reserved every weekend.

At the back of their store, at the top of the resort, rental alpine skis collect dust.

"Everyone expected it", regrets Patrice, who confides to feel a "great feeling of sadness and waste" in front of the decision of the government.

And again, "we do not know what will be done in February, we can not project".

For the moment, their store is running at "5-10%" of the usual activity, and for the moment they are the only ones to manage a store which normally employs about ten people at the peak of the season.

The only recruited is in partial activity.

Another seasonal worker, for example, preferred to keep his job in masonry.

The station, which has 2,200 year-round residents, normally offers nearly 2,000 seasonal jobs.

On Wednesday evening, the government deemed "highly unlikely" a reopening in mid or late February.

"For us the (downhill skiing) season is going to be white and we still hope that we will be able to welcome people to snowshoe, hike and that they will come and have a good time in the mountains", hopes Patrice.

Faced with a looming social breakdown, "the state must now measure all the consequences (of its decision) and make commitments" to support "this mountain ecosystem", warns the mayor André Perrillat-Amédé.

"One euro spent on the ski lift pass corresponds to 6 euros spent at a station," he explains.

"We usually have a turnover that exceeds 16 million euros in Le Grand Bornand. You can guess a little about the shortfall that currently exists" for all economic players, he complains.

"The resort is not dead, but it lacks a bit of pep's", summarizes Denise Maniere, a retiree from Isère on vacation.

"We are right," she assures us, but this cross-country skier especially regrets one thing: with the curfew, her "mulled wine in the evening" at the local café no longer exists.

© 2021 AFP