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Summer skiing France

Alan — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 06:33:04 +0000

If you aren’t one of the lucky ones who will be enjoying the winter in Chile, Australia or New Zealand, you may still get to enjoy some vertical joy in France at one of the summer ski resorts. There are at least a half a dozen glaciers that can be skied in France in the summer.

Les Deux Alpes is the largest of all ski areas in Europe with over 750 meters of vertical and 200 hectares. The glaciers are still in good shape even thought there was some shrinkage in the 1990s. On August 10^th of last year they received 45 cm of snow. Back in the 1970s you could ski all the way to 2500 meters during July an additional 200 meters.

The other good area for skiing in the summer is Tignes with close to 500 meters of vertical. Pierre Schnebelen the Tignes promoter discovered the magical formula for summer skiing. By equipping Grande Motte, the glacier, for skiing, the skiing season became a year round adventure. Recently the glacier has suffered due to high temperatures and the station much close for certain months each year.

In la Plagne the Bellecote Glacier is closed for summer skiing this year to rebuild the cable car for Roche de Mio. The closing may be a blessing in disguise since the glacier suffered greatly last year from little snow and it is usually difficult to ski later than the first of August.

In the 1970s skiers could descend as far down as Val d’Isere and the St Charles Bridge for skiing in the summer on du Pissaillas. Today the condition of the glacier is poor with a summer season that is very restricted. Last year skiing ended in mid-July this summer the glacier will be closed due to uncommonly warm weather.

Schnedelen tried to convince Val Thorens with the idea of skiing in the summer but was met with great opposition from the environmentalists. The ski lifts that had remained have now been removed on Glacier de la Chaviere and have left a tiny piste on glacier de Peclet. This glacier as well will be closed during the summer since it is also in retreat.

L’Alpe d’Huez is equipping the Sarenne Glacier. What is most important for the resort is to guarantee their winter skiing since the resort is south facing but it also allowed the resort to have autumn skiing last year for the holidays at school and is France’s most challenging summer skiing.

A new lift is being built to help with access to the glacier de Sarenne from the lift system at the top of Marmottes. The system utilizes two cables making them much better in high winds. L’Alpe d’Huez was scheduled to open for the summer season on June 28^th.

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Les Duex Alpes and Tignes open up for summer

Alan — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 06:09:34 +0000

Skiing begins this weekend with the opening of Les Duex Alpes and Tignes along with another handful of skiing destinations for the summer. In France it begins in earnest both resorts should have snow sports through the August bank holiday whilst at Val d’Isere the Pissailas Glacier is open until mid July.

Snowsports on the three glaciers snow will only be available in the morning but with the lifts open much earlier, there should be a full five hours or more of skiing before it is off to do some biking.

Les Deux Alpes, with the largest skiable glacier in Europe and Tignes, where the activity is on Grande Motte glacier, both have freestyle areas as well as some intermediate runs making it a great excuse on your summer trip to hit the peak.

Elsewhere the Horstman Glacier on Blackcomb Mountain will open this weekend and will see Whistler Blackcomb once again in the snow scene after two weeks of gap following the 30 May end of the winter season. Down south in the southern hemisphere near Queenstown in New Zealand, The Remarkables had to postpone their opening for this weekend following a lack of snow and warm temperatures have not allowed for artificial snow making.

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Summer skiing in the French Alps

Alan — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 16:10:00 +0000

The French ski resort Les Deux Alpes opened its summer ski season June 16^th along with Val d’Isere and Tignes, which opened later on June 19^th.

Conditions are great on the slopes with high altitudes causing heavy snow fall throughout the week. In fact, June to September skiing is rapidly becoming popular on Europe’s glaciers and even more so with snowboarders that aim to hit the pistes fresh but when they are groomed.

Generally, the ski day starts around 8am and ends at lunchtime with skiers hitting the pool or bars for some rest and relaxation in the sunshine of the mountains. Outside of the slopes, there is plenty to do on the alps during the summer for those who are not skiers with many resorts offering up to forty different activities that range from hiking to summer bob sleighing to kids’ clubs to white water rafting to mountain biking.

This makes the French Alps one of the best places for those that wish to enjoy the alpine self catering while taking the chance to experience the outdoors at a slower pace.

In particular, the Les Deux Alpes has some of the largest glaciers in Europe with a summer ski season that opened to a great start with everything but two lifts and two slopes open and all of the snow park features open for access.

The resort will remain open until August 28^th with lifts that run from 7:15am until 12:30 on a regular basis so that skiers can get the most out of the slopes each day of their visit.

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French and Austrian summer ski resorts disappearing

Alan — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 14:51:19 +0000

Ski resorts in Austria that used to be one of the prime locations for summer skiing are starting to slowly decay, with one of the largest resorts in Austria, the Zolden, announcing that this will be the last summer that it is open for summer glacier skiing.

Throughout the greater part of the nineties there were around 40 ski stations in Zolden, all of which served tourists in the summer. However, today there are less than half of these ski stations still open for summer skiing due to the decrease in viable glacial runs for alpine skiing during the summer, due to global warming.

French ski resorts are facing the same problem as the country, which was once predominantly known for offering alpine skiing year round, is announcing that many summer ski resorts will close their doors.

Among the top resorts that will no longer offer summer skiers refuge are La-Plagne, Val Thorens, and Alp d’Juez. Those planning to travel to another resort in France for summer skiing should be aware that many have changed their summer schedules.

Thus, the Tignes resort which normally stayed open from spring into summer will not only offer summer skiing in 2010 from the middle part of June through late August. Skiing will also be open for half the month during the months of May and September in Tignes.

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Who says the ski season is over?

Alan — Thu, 20 May 2010 01:20:46 +0000

It is hard to figure out exactly when the ski season ends and another begins due to the fact that somewhere around the world there are at least thirty ski areas that are still open. Although mid-May may seem to the be the quietest seasons in the Southern hemisphere, many of the leading resorts of Europe open in the summer for boarding and skiing on the glaciers.

Adding to the debate about where the season actually starts and ends, is the fact that now there are five countries in Europe with glaciers that avid skiers can enjoy- France, Switzerland, Italy, Austria, and Norway and even more glaciers in the US and Canada.

Austria rules as the place to head for summer skiing with eight different summer glacier ski areas that are still open although Tux is the only resort that is open every day of the year. Luckily, it also boost one of the largest ski areas in Europe for summer skiing.

In France, all of the ski areas close during late spring, but reopen again from mid-June to August. Among those that you can enjoy for a late spring run are Val d’Isere, Les2 Alpes, and Tignes.

Italy on the other hand offers the Passo Tonale ski area open until the end of June with Passo Stelvio opening at the end of May until September. Also opening in June is the Val Senales.

Switzerland is the place to go for those who want to tackle the highest slopes, since the country offers the highest ski lifts that stay open in Europe during the summer up to 3,899m. They also boost one of the only year round open ski resort and offer summer verticals of up to 880m.

Finally, Norway offers smaller ski areas for those looking for a quainter break including the Galdhoppigen, Folgefonn, and Stryn resort areas that sport base depths of 4m.

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