Tignes Gives Up On Autumn Ski Opening
Tignes Gives Up On Autumn Ski Opening
Published : 06-Aug-2023 06:10
Tignes has given up on its glacier opening in Autumn, announcing it does not intend to open before 25th November this year.
The French resort used to open its ski lifts 365 days a year, weather permitting, then moved to a model when it opened from September to May then for summer skiing from June to August, so that it could say it was open for skiing every month of the year.
However, even without pandemic closures, climate change had been impacting Autumn glacier cover, and Tignes was increasingly missing its planned September opening due to lack of snow, or was only able to open extremely limited terrain. Last year, after hardly managing to open for summer skiing, it missed October too.
This summer it did open for five weeks of summer skiing in June and July as planned, not yet following Les 2 Alpes' decision to switch its summer ski season from June to August to May – June. The two resorts and Val d'Isere are the only French areas still offering brief summer ski seasons.
A 2011 report, at which time Tignes stayed open to early September and closed for just a few weeks each autumn before re-opening for an over 7 month ski season, noted that at that point the Grand Motte glacier where summer and autumn skiing takes place had lost 30% of its mass over the previous four decades. It is thought the rate of thaw has since accelerated.
The decision not to open until the end of November appears to mean that Tignes will no longer have the longest season in France, even though it id expected to stay open for five months to May and if summer skiing continues in 2024, still be open for a total of more than 6 months. However Les 2 Alpes managed over 7 months opening in 22-23 including its 2 months of summer (or more accurately now 'late spring') skiing.
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