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M'excuser Mon Ami, But There IS Snow In The Alps
By J.D. O'Connor
March 05, 2007
By Patrick Thorne
Mainstream media has painted a pretty bleak picture of snow conditions in Europe this year. Even after a reversal of fortune brought plenty of snow to the Alps the 'no snow' angle continues to tie in well with a media feeding frenzy on global warming paranoia.
It even provided a marketing opportunity for destination resorts in the US who naturally sought to boost skier numbers from across the Pond, already enticed by the weak dollar, by hyping white gold out West.
The true story in the Alps since Christmas? It has been warm in the valleys - the snowline has moved about between 3000 and 6000 feet - bad news for a few of the small low, hills in Austria. But not a problem for the vast majority of resorts in France and Switzerland where the lifts often ascend way above 9000 feet. Chamonix's upper slopes currently have a 12 foot snow depth, comparable with the world's best and two foot ahead of the average there over the past decade.
"We've been skiing every day of the season," said Katie Ward, manager of Le Bubble, a bar in Courchevel, France. "Since Christmas the snow has been fine, since February it has been great and at the moment it's fabulous with five feet of fresh powder. Over the hill in Val d'Isere they'll be skiing on it through to May."
So why isn't that story getting told?
If you don't think too hard, the 'no snow' story sits nicely with climate change predictions. One of the most quoted reports, a UN funded 2003 study, even says low lying Alpine resorts will suffer in the future exactly as they have this winter.
"I'm not denying global warming has long term effects but how could it be responsible for a radical change from one year to the next? There are great seasons, average seasons and poor seasons for snow. This year started as the latter and could well finish as the former," said Xavier Schouller of tour operator Peak Retreats.
Unfortunately few media reports have thought this through, some commentators have even turned nasty, vilifying skiers as the very bringers of climate change doom rather than pointing to the Alps as victims, being located within a ring of Europe's major industrial areas and suffering faster temperature rises than the rest of the continent.
Also, dozens of FIS ski races were cancelled from November to February helping to perpetuate the "no snow" impression around the world. The cancellations in the Chamoinx Valley on January 20th occured when the resort actually had a base depth of six feet on the upper half of its 9,200 foot vertical. The problem was that the race course, like most other long standing Alpine race courses including Kitzbuhel's Hahnenhamn, was down at resort level. Cancelling races due to the danger to high speed racers does not mean there isn't plenty of good snow for recreational skiers, but media reports didn't point that out.
Whilst any half-competent North American resort would fire off a marketing email describing the "awesome" conditions each time a few inches of snow falls, the Euro resorts just don't get it. In the midst of a three foot dump on the world's largest ski area, the French Three Valleys, last week, the resort just put out its regular monthly news bulletin. Item three (behind a coming French Film Festival) was 'Trail Conditions' - if you studied the small print you'd find 32 inches had fallen in the past 48 hours.
Regardless of the realities of climate change, the instant global information provision of the internet and the global reach of the world's top ski resorts has led skiers to expect ski resorts to provide perfect snow cover from December to April. In truth, resorts rarely ever did do that, year in, year out, back in those distant decades of the 1970s and 80s. But people didn't expect perfection then.
"I started skiing when I was five and we used to go at least twice a year. There were no snow cannons in the '70s and a few times we could not ski much in late April but that didn't stop us returning the following year as we enjoyed going to the mountain," says Schouller.
Of course it's a dangerous path for ski resorts to admit they don't have perfect conditions every day of the year. It's hard enough to admit even that if there's been a five foot dump, it means, duh, there's been a white out for 48 hours and there's probably now a critical avalanche risk in the back country.
Climate change or not, perhaps its time for the European ski industry, along with diversifying its offerings, to get a bit more real about the weather?
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Comments
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Better check your weather map again guys. It was raining to 7000 feet in the French Alps this weekend... |
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Posted by: Michel Beaudry Michel Beaudry Communications | March 5, 2007 10:07 AM
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Thanks for the weather update, Michel! |
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Posted by: J.D. | March 5, 2007 10:39 AM
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Thank you Patrick for the article. I do not think anybody in the industry is served by catastrophic weather reports! Skiing is an out door sport and out doors the weather changes.
Michel: Freazing level in France changes by Thursday to 3600 feet and Meribel reported 20cm new on the bottom for March 5th.
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Posted by: CD | March 6, 2007 12:06 AM
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With all due respect, CD, no one in the industry or among the skiing public is served either by dishonest weather and snow conditions reports. As any New Englander can attest, several inches of new snow can be (or often are) soon followed by rain, melt and freezing, challenging snow groomers to created and maintain a skiable surface.
Let's face it. This just hasn't been Europe's year for good conditions. This year, conditions were miserable in New England too. Last season, New Mexico and southern Colorado were in dismal shape. The year before, it was the Pacific Northwest than lacked snow. These cycles happen, and pretending that they don't is not productive.
Anyone who has been following the World Cup knows that the whole Alpine winter has been a shambles -- even given that ski racers' requiements are different from thine and mine. |
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Posted by: Claire Walter Writer | March 6, 2007 06:26 AM
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Hi Claire,
I do live in Europe and believe me, I know it is a difficult year here. I also agree that posting unrealistic snow reports do nothing good. I am just wondering, what the constant negative publicity you are finding in all European news papaers is helping. As you say, the weather has cycles. Last year we had the most snow in Europe since 1964 and this year is difficult. But with the efforts of the resorts there is still very good skiing to be had. |
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Posted by: CD | March 6, 2007 08:27 AM
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CD, negative reports make news -- or at least make news "easy" to write. Hundreds, thousands of Garuda planes have taken off and landed without incident. The one that caught fire yesterday made news. Every time there is a plane crash, the media trot out a timeline of previous plane crashes. Millions of children go to and come home from school without incident. When one child is abducted, it is news, and previous child abductions from the Lindbergh baby on are recalled. So it goes.
The media reports on weather extremes and how they impact human lives or even the short-range health of an industry like tourism -- record heat, record cold, blizzards, no snow, drought, floods, avalanches, mudslides, hurricanes, tornadoes, typhoons, tsunamis, etc. It is unreasonable to expect that this will change. |
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Posted by: Claire Walter | March 7, 2007 05:55 AM
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