Les 2 Alpes Plans To Stay Open For Skiing To July
Les 2 Alpes Plans To Stay Open For Skiing To July
Published : 16-Mar-2024 10:59
French glacier ski resort Les 2 Alpes is aiming to stay open for skiing to the start of July this year, all being well.
Last season the resort (pictured above in April last year) switched from its traditional June to August glacier opening period, and decided to close for a week at the end of the main season then reopen for spring skiing through May and June.
As the resort openly acknowledges the impact of climate change and its forced desire to transition to a less snowsports dependent year round resort, this opening model proved more successful than previous recent summer ski seasons when the glacier had been forced to close a few weeks into July due to summer heat thawing snow cover from the glacier.
It was so successful in 2023 in fact that the resort stayed open later into July than the original end-of-June closure plan, boosted by the heaviest snows of last season falling through spring, a lot of it after 99% of ski areas had closed. Snow is lying deepest in the world on French glaciers at present and this year the plan is to aim to stay open through to include the first week of July, should conditions permit.
There are two other remaining summer glacier ski areas in France, neighbouring Tignes and Val d'Isère.
Tignes, which once aimed to open every day of the year, then at least one day every month of the year, then from early-autumn to early May and then again for 6-8 weeks in summer, last year gave up on its autumn opening and reduced to a four-and-a-bit month late-November to early-May opening schedule, relinquishing its long held position as having the longest season in France to Les 2 Alpes. It has not year announced its summer 2024 opening plans.
However Val d'Isère have announced that they'll reopen for late-spring/early-summer skiing for four weeks from Saturday, June 8th to Friday, July 5th, 2024.
"If conditions allow, we strap on the skis under the summer sun and we'll race down the slopes of the glacier!" a resort statement explains.
In the 1980s and 1990s France had around 10 glaciers opening for some summer snow sports. Those that no longer do include Chamonix, Les Arcs, la Plagne and Val Thorens. Alpe d'Huez, which was another summer opener, currently has the world's deepest reported base on its glacier of 4.8 metres.
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