Les 2 Alpes Readies for Summer Ski Season
Les 2 Alpes Readies for Summer Ski Season
Published : 27-Apr-2011 09:02
Les 2 Alpes was one of the few French ski areas to report any fresh snow in the past week, if only a couple of inches. There's still a few weeks of winter 2010-11 to go there, but the resort which claims to operate the largest skiable glacier in Europe is already making preparations for summer 2011.
Since Chamonix, La Plagne and Val Thorens gave up the ghost there are only three summer ski areas left open in France (Tignes and Val d'Isere are the other two). None are open year-round any more (since Tignes stopped that) so there's now a 4-6 week gap from mid-May to late-June when nowhere is open for snowsports in France except the indoor slope (albeit the world's longest) at Amneville in the north of the country.
People have been enjoying summer skiing at Les 2 Alpes for more than 40 years and last summer 138,284 ski enthusiasts came up to the glacier during the summer season, an average of some 2,000 per day.
Skiing and boarding takes place between 2,900 metres and 3,600 metres, making for a 700 metre vertical; accessed from the resort in 30 minutes by high-speed lifts (that's faster than most summer skiing areas). The slopes are open between 7am and 1pm with an adult day pass in 2011 costing 34.20 Euros.
There are 90 hectares of runs comprising 4 blue, 2 green and 2 red, a freestyle zone and an off-piste area. 16 ski lifts will be running (compared to 50 in winter) and "Les Glaciers" high-altitude restaurant is open too.
To maximise summer skiing opportunities, the Deux Alpes Loisirs company has already begun getting the summer slopes ready during winter. Officials perform a series of snow cover measurements at 90 separate points, gauging temperature, thickness, melt rate and so forth.
This work goes on every day through the winter season and enables the resort to choose the right ways to prepare the slopes. Techniques include Snow Traps (storing snow with wooden barriers or a series of half-tubes dug into the glacier; once this is done, grooming machines take over, spreading and redistributing the collected snow across all of the glacier's pistes on a daily basis).
"Thanks to these endeavours the area remains skiable beyond the winter and the summer season is all set for success." Said a resort statement.
Les 2 Alpes summer ski season runs from Saturday 18 June to Sunday 28 August 2011.
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