the snow and the skiers present for the first day of opening of the resort

After two seasons of 2022 and 2023 with capricious weather, where the warm weather had largely affected the quality of the snow at the foot of the slopes, this 2024 season is starting under the best auspices. With 80 centimeters recorded at the bottom of the station, Gourette was able to open its lifts this weekend of December 14 and 15, to the delight of its local users or regulars impatient to feel the snow crunching under their spatulas.

In the gondola towards the Bezou plateau, enthusiasm is in order. Daniel and his son Victor traveled from Bordeaux to take advantage of these first days: “We arrived from Bordeaux on Friday evening,” says the father. We decided at the last moment, when we saw that there was snow, we contacted the rental agency on Thursday evening and fortunately there was still room. »

New things

On the immaculate slopes, the world is there, skiers get their bearings with their families while regulars discover the new features of the season and in particular important changes in the famous Cotch sector. Jean-Philippe and his wife Catherine, two Pau skiers from the start, wonder: “We are a little surprised by the new developments, we will have to familiarize ourselves with this gondola which no longer allows access to the Cotch sector directly. For the moment, we are rather skeptical, but I imagine that they have good reasons for having put this in place. »

An observation to which the director of the resort, Jean-François Esquerre, provides some clarification: “The idea was to cut the Cotch sector in two to duplicate the Bezou system, in order to ensure the descent of skiers in the lower part (between 1,300 and 1,600 meters) up to the station in case of lack of snow. »

He continues: “For the upper part, from 1,600 to 2,000 meters, we had two old obsolete ski lifts 60 years old. We therefore took the option of replacing them with the old Cotch chairlift. We took advantage of this rehabilitation to change the motorization of the lift, less polluting on the network.”

Eco-Friendly Choices

Esteban and Pablo, two young skiers from Salies-de-Béarn, are still a little perplexed by this new system. Pablo comments: “It will be nice for the end of the season, when there will be no more snow down there, but it’s a shame because we have to use two lifts instead of one to get to the same place . I know it cost a lot of money and I would have found it nicer if they invested in opening new tracks. »

“Today, ski resorts are optimizing their ski areas more than expanding them”

A suggestion to which, here too, Jean-François Esquerre brings his expertise: “Today, the vast majority of ski resorts optimize their ski areas more than they expand them. In 2018, when we launched the project for this new system, there was also talk of connecting Gourette to Artouste, or even a development at the level of the Anglas cirque, but these are very expensive projects and often contested for ecological reasons. »