Between the Christmas holidays and those of February, the eyes of enthusiasts are turned to the snow in the ski resorts. In the City of Gloves, you have to adapt over the years to ski nearby, when conditions permit.
It’s probably a time that those under 20 cannot experience. At one time, winter sports lovers did not ask themselves the question of snow cover in the mountains to indulge in their favorite leisure activities.
On January 28, 2006, the City of Gloves woke up with a white coat measuring 70 to 80 cm, a record. While some were content to walk down the steepest streets of the city with plastic bags or trash can lids, the most enthusiastic took the car, heading towards Aigoual or the Laguiole stations.
From the 70s to the present day, a change noticed by the Alpina
In recent years, we have been counting the number of skiable days in the surrounding area on the fingers of both hands. For the Alpina figures, the phenomenon is even older. Didier Cadaux – now 66 years old and mayor of Saint-Georges-de-Luzençon – joined Alpina at a very young age, following his parents who were members. “I wasn’t a fan but it had an impact on me and it fits with the death of Claude Françoishe confides. From the mid-70s onwards, snow became rarer.”
At that time, Aigoual, a good hour’s drive away, was the favored resort of the Millavois, where many learned to ski there. Alpina, which had its chalet near the Aigoual slopes, also put an end to the organization of its grand prix, brought forward from year to year – from March to the end of January – to cope with the lack of snow. . While the practice became more popular in the 1950s, as a result of weather conditions, numbers logically decreased.
Up to a hundred children supported during the February holiday courses, the club has around fifty members this year. Then turned towards Laguiole, the Alpina like all skiers could enjoy 40 to 45 days of skiing per year in the Aubrac resorts. When all the ingredients are combined, there are only around twenty skiable days per year on average over recent years, marked by the health crisis and particularly warm winters.
“Lioran was much further away and there was no highway at the timerecalls Didier Cadaux. Today, it has almost become the closest but it also suffers from the lack of snow. Last year, Laguiole and Aigoual only opened two weekends…” At the beginning of January 2023, Alpina canceled its scheduled outings in Lioran for the first time on these dates, due to lack of snow. And this year, white gold fell almost by surprise a few days before the Christmas holidays. But the nearby stations were fighting against other skies.
A subject as political as it is economic
In Laguiole, the Association for the Promotion of the Laguiole Ski Resort (APSL) demonstrated in front of the town hall at the beginning of December, the only structure to have responded to the call for tenders launched by the mixed union of Aubrac Aveyron resorts to manage the domain.
Regularly in deficit, the €200,000 hole last year was filled by the municipality of Laguiole, as our colleagues from Press Center. The joint union council – chaired by Vincent Alazard, mayor of Laguiole – approved on December 27 the contract for the operation of the Laguiole ski resort for this winter at the APSL.
The latter found itself in the same situation for two seasons, and for the same reasons, at the helm of the 15 alpine ski slopes, the ten ski lifts, the four cross-country ski trails and the snowshoe and toboggan courses. The municipality will invest €60,000 for operating costs, while the APSL is also considering developing summer activities, when 1.5 million euros in economic benefits are calculated. On the Aigoual side, summer activities have been thought about for years. Laurent Monge-Cadet and Denis Boissière have been directors of the Alti Aigoual Public Service Delegation (DSP) since 2019. In 2029, this DSP will end.
Since 2024, Denis Boissière has also been vice-president of the AVE Cévennes civic association. “We must prepare for after 2029, it is no longer for us that we are fighting but for the territory, he says. The station is declining due to global warming but also because of the National Park. We have been fighting for diversification for 30 years. The station was created in 1968 and the Park in 1970. When the latter wanted to come to our territory in 1969, the elected officials at the time voted against with 14 proposals including the seventh which did not prohibit the expansion of the stations . Today, while the Aigoual forest covers more than 16,000 hectares, we are fighting to remove around thirty hectares from the heart of the park for mountain biking or treetop adventures.”
General meetings were held at Esperou at the end of the year with the elected officials concerned and the new director of the Park.
Mixed into this fight is that of the economy. In April 2024, Alti Aigoual had to make redundancies to go from 8 to 3 full-time equivalents. “Seven stations came to help us for 42 days of work”, adds Denis Boissière, emphasizing mountain solidarity. An online fundraiser made it possible to hire 1.5 technicians to set up the station but, in mid-December, €30,000 was still missing for operation. Beyond counting on mountain solidarity which allowed the loan of two snow groomers, companies are invited to sponsor these snow groomers and users to purchase solidarity packages.
“If there are not ten days of opening, the entire package is transformed into a voucher, he explains. Last season, we already thought it was the last. From the start of the DSP, we thought we would finance ourselves through winter and summer. Since 2017, the years have been special and to this was added the explosion in energy costs in 2022 which saw our bill increase from €35,000 to €80,000. There, we can say that from 10,000 packages, we can save ourselves. When we’re open, on a good day, we can do 1,000 packages per day.”
In mid-January, the Gard resort had still not opened its slopes due to lack of insurance. But we affirm internally that the problem has been resolved and that all the ingredients – including snow – will be there in the coming weeks. This weekend, Aigoual intends to attract sledders and runners from the Hivern’Aigoual trail.
If the main players seem to be resilient to global warming – resorts are also closing in the Pyrenees or the Alps – the diversification of activities seems to be their salvation. Because in the end, in the worst case, these lovers of the territory fear seeing the inhabitants who made it attractive leave.
