Climate change in the mountains
For mountain and winter sports resorts, climate change is above all synonymous, on average, with rising temperatures and falling snow depth. Météo France has been recording temperature, rainfall and snow depths at the Col de Porte near Grenoble for over 50 years. The observation is clear: in more than 50 years,
we conclude that the temperature rises by 1.3 ° and the snow falls about 50 cm at the Col de Porte.
An increasingly strong impact for winter sports resorts
Locations depend on weather conditions, with snow being the main pull factor. The behavior of skiers and tourists depends on the weather and snow conditions. The weather is beautiful, the snow is there, you are going skiing; if the weather is bad and there is no snow, then you will hesitate or delay your practice. We understand that climate change, with this decrease in natural snow cover, has already impacted localities and will continue to impact them in the future.
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Are resorts able to adapt to this change?
If I do a little caricature, we can say that two adaptation strategies are implemented in the resorts.
- The first is to make up for the lack of natural snow by producing artificial snow, also called artificial snow. Technically producing snow means sending pressurized water into large poles, visible at the edge of the slopes. Today all stations, especially large and medium-sized ones, are investing in this technology.
- The second way of adaptation aims to create a diversified tourist offer, in winter as in summer or even on seasonal wings. The proposed activities are many: snowshoeing, dog sledding, trekking, cycling, cultural visits.
In concrete terms, these 2 strategies, artificial snow and tourist diversification, often exist simultaneously in the localities, but they should be better articulated locally.
Emmanuelle George’s vision of the future of these two strategies:
Very difficult question. As for snow, the aim will be to assess whether we will be able to continue production, and in what weather, economic and environmental conditions.
For diversification, the option would be for resorts to develop their own specific tourism offer in order to prevent all resorts from providing the same services and equipment.
But above all, the important thing for me is to think about the future of these localities, in their territories, with all the actors, considering the tourist developments but also other economic options, new ways of living in the mountains, maintaining environmental quality, in the context of climate change. It is certainly a collective challenge today and for tomorrow.
