LES2ALPES CANCELS OCTOBER GLACIER OPENING
11th October 2017 | James Cove, PlanetSKI Editor
Last modified on August 23rd, 2021
The glacier at the French resort simply doesn’t have enough snow. It is yet another sign of the impact of climate change.
It is a blow for the resort that is one of the earliest to open in France.
It was due to open the glacier for skiing and snowboarding from October 21st to November 1st.
“The weather in recent months, characterised by high heat and lack of precipitation, has led to a deterioration in the altitude ski area,” said a statement from the resort.

“In this context, the 2 Alpes station has taken the exceptional decision not to open its altitude ski area for the period,” it added.
It normally has a 10-day opening over the October half-term before closing and re-opening in December.
The decision will not have been taken lightly but the resorts says is cannot guarantee safety and standards.
“In addition to our desire to always offer a quality and secure ski product, this decision is guided by the will to preserve and maintain the glacier,” said the resort.
The resort saw high temperatures over the summer and a lack of fresh snow.
PlanetSKI was in the resort and skiing on the glacier at its opening weekend back in June.
Summer glacier skiing was generally poor this year and here at PlanetSKI we have seen a gradual deterioration in recent years.
If you want to experience summer glacier skiing our advice is to go sooner rather than later.
This year’s cancellation means that the “Enjoy the Glacier” and “High Test Decathlon” events that were due to have taken place have both been cancelled.
Cancelled
The resort will still be open to visitors, and there will be free activities for all those in resort from 21st October to 1st November 2017.
These include access to the Diable and Venosc mountain bike trails and various hiking trails, climbing, fitness, yoga, zumba and many more activities.
The resort is installing snow canons on the glacier to ensure such cancellations do not happen again.
There has been some decent autumn snowfall in the Alps with the best in the Austrian glacier areas of the Tirol as we have reported on PlanetSKI.
The summer was a poor one for the glacier resorts in Europe as we reported.
There were difficult conditions on the glacier at Tignes in France when PlanetSKI’s chief reporter, Jane Peel, visited.
Changing weather patterns have also led to the decision not to build the popular Dachstein freestyle Superpark near Schladming in Austria this autumn.
So, where is it best to ski at the moment?
Here is the view of our resident snow expert, Fraser Wilkin, from weathertoski.co.uk:
“In France, the only option for the next few weeks will therefore be Tignes. In Italy, you can currently ski on the glaciers at Val Senales and Passo Stelvio, with Cervinia set to join them (at weekends only) this weekend and next, before opening daily from 28 October. In Switzerland you can ski in Zermatt, Saas-Fee and Engelberg.
However, the best snow conditions are in Austria where all the glaciers are open – Dachstein, Kitzsteinhorn, Stubai, Sölden, Hintertux, Pitztal, Kaunertal and Mölltal. Of these, Hintertux currently offers the greatest extent of skiing, with 35km of pistes served by 14 lifts.”
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