“What brings people to the resort is still skiing”. Yannick Garin, director of the French Ski School (ESF) of La Colmiane, and former director of the Vésubie resort, wants to put an end to the desire for new models to invent.
“ We can say what we want, the people who come to the resort are there to ski. We must therefore continue to offer them this, with artificial snow when natural snow is lacking. The mountain economy is based exclusively on this, not on anything else. So yes, all-skiing is definitely over. But without skiing remains impossible.”
At La Colmiane, lower in altitude – this is also the case at Roubion and Gréolières 1,400 – we have therefore opened up, thanks to artificial snow, a small part of the ski area, in particular pampering the slopes reserved for beginners.
“And look, it's full everywhere, comments Yannick Garin. Yes, there are people on the zip line because we have had to diversify our activities, including in winter, but it is on the few open slopes that you will find the most people. At the ESF in La Colmiane, the thirty instructors work full time during these holidays and yet, it did not snow. As for businesses, it is also in winter that they make their numbers. So yes, artificial snow today contributes to the assembly economy. Without it, the whole system collapses, we must not pit one model against the other.”
Yannick Garin recalls the latest known figures for the carbon impact of ski resorts in France (1): “More than 60% is transport, 30% is the energy strainers of housing. The operation of the station represents only 3% of this carbon impact. And of this 3%, 15% is the production of artificial snow. The carbon impact is negligible and with that we sustain an entire territory during the winter. I find this, for my part, rather virtuous, especially since this artificial snow, when it melts, returns. towards the groundwater.”
1. Figures from ski areas in France
