Holiday chaos as lack of snow causes half of French ski slopes to remain shut

HOLIDAYGOERS are set for chaos at the end of this year as a lack of snow in the Pyrenees and other French ski slopes means they will remain shut.

The mild winter season accompanied by rains, in the past days, has greatly disrupted the plans for Ski stations in the French alps and the Pyrenees this year, due to lack of snow. According to a report by the French newspaper Sud Ouest, on Tuesday, December 27, this has resulted in over half of the ski slopes across France to remaining shut, at a time of the peak holiday season.  

Domaines Skiables de France (DSF), a French chamber of professional ski station operators, said in a statement quoted in the report, “We had started the Christmas holidays with a good situation following a wave of cold and snow, but from the end of last week, the mild weather and the rains led to the closure of half of the slopes”.  

The Southern Alps which have over 75 per cent of the slopes opened along with the Northern Alps, have been the least affected. However, the situation is particularly worrying in the Pyrenees, with only 25 per cent of the slopes open this year. Aside from this, the Vosges and the Jura also witnessed a lack of snow, as only 25 per cent of the slopes have been opened so far.  

Lack of snow also caused several ski stations to remain closed across the country. This includes resorts such as La Pierre-Saint-Martin (Pyrénées-Atlantiques), Saint-Pierre de Chartreuse/Le Planolet (Isère), Semnoz (Haute-Savoie), Le Tanet (Vosges) and Croix de Bauzon (Massif Central).

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