Climate disaster: Where has all the snow gone?  Rory Davidson

 

The start of the ski season is here, and the French alps are suffering, with lower resorts such as Morzine and Les Gets being left bare through the abnormally high temperatures causing complete closures of runs and lifts in some areas throughout the resorts.

 

As suspected, many are blaming this on global warming, stating that the snow melting is caused purely by the greenhouse gases emitted by the human race. Environmental activists are also protesting against the winter sports, by vandalising two snow machines in Les Gets by cutting wires and graffitiing them in retaliation to the increased reliability for snow machines due to the lesser and lesser snowfall each year. Temperatures have risen up to twelve degrees Celsius in Morzine which is far above the average high of one degrees Celsius in January. Leading to the melting of any snow that falls. Snow cover is so little on some mountains that bike and walking trails are still open in the places where skiers should be zooming down. With many anxious that the snow fall will never recover.

 

Holiday makers were left despondent and unsatisfied while bringing in the new year in one of the most popular ski weeks of the year due to the crowded queues and limited skiable area. Due to only the highest areas in Avoriaz 1800 being left open everyone was forced to ski there, leading to chairlift queue times skyrocketing and piste quality to reduce. The combination of mild weather and high volume of skiers led the pistes to turn to slushy moguls- unpleasant for everyone to ski on. Rocks and grass were on show too, due to the thin snow cover with skiers taking it extremely carefully amid nerves with these added dangers. In some places snow cover was non-existent resulting in a closure of 50% of all runs. Impacting skiers greatly with this huge disruption to their holiday and some even choosing not to come at all!

 

 Alpine restaurants and hotels have also been put in danger, with one of their most busy weeks of the year being completely jeopardised and receiving little to no customers due to the minor snow fall and therefore, no access to these alpine businesses. Striping the profit away from these businesses is extremely detrimental as these restaurants ultimately rely on the profit of the busiest weeks to sustain themselves for the low times of holidaying and in the off seasons. And if this continues to occur, then we may see the slow disappearance of these beautiful alpine establishments.

 

Many locals and holiday makers are hoping that this is a natural anomaly and not due to climate change as we look forward and head into the middle of the ski season with desperation for temperatures to lower and the snow to begin falling again.