Photo: Hautacam
A small ski area in France’s Pyrenees range has announced it can no longer support downhill skiing operations after multiple seasons with a “serious lack of snow.” A press release from the Hautacam resort referenced falling “victim” to global warming and sent a warning to other small, low-altitude ski areas and politicians in the face of a changing global climate. Many European resorts have been suffering from a lack of snow in recent years, forcing similar closures.
“It is not possible for elected officials to ignore the growing difficulties linked to ski management on the one hand (with a significant regulatory system), and on the other hand an average altitude and an exposure of the snow front particularly sensitive to climatic variations. Like many mid-altitude resorts, the Hautacam site is dependent on global warming,” wrote the resort.
At just 4,900 to 5,900 feet, Hautacam is more of a family-friendly activity center than a ski resort. It operates a “four seasons” model that includes a range of outdoor activities like ziplining, mountain biking, tubing, snowmobiling, trails for riding electric scooters, cross-country skiing, and more. The ski area offered just 25 kilometers of trails and seven lifts, however, at only 25€ for an adult lift ticket, the alpine ski offering made the sport refreshingly accessible to the public.
Skiing will technically still be available at Hautacam in some capacity moving forward, snow permitting. Officials wrote that “the site will remain open year-round, offering a range of leisure and dining activities,” and added that they are working on adapting the area to include a beginner-friendly “ski initiation” area.
Members of the local community are voicing support for Hautacam in response to the news. A petition has been started in hopes that skiing can be saved at Hautacam.
“This resort, so dear to the hearts of all valley residents, cannot disappear; several generations of children have learned to ski here,” one supporter wrote. “Let’s save Hautacam, a resort on a human scale and with prices accessible to all budgets!”
Another message of support reads, “We are spending (wasting) public money for purposes far less honorable than keeping this small ski resort alive. Even if its closure is likely due to the lack of snow, I think that it can be postponed for a while, and as it has been for several years, this small resort can continue to be a laboratory for reinventing the economic model of skiing! Such as perhaps organizing events around a snowfall! Less preparation of the slopes in order to attract a more nature-loving public, employing professionals in different (realms) (municipal employees, farmers, employees in companies that cannot operate during the snow period), so as not to place the salary costs only on a single activity!!!!”
