more than 150 ghost ski resorts to dismantle
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France offers one of the largest ski areas in the world with 350 winter sports resorts. But how many will be left in 20 years? With global warming, snow is rarer at medium altitudes, the seasons are increasingly short and some sites are no longer profitable.
You have to climb to an altitude of 1,200 meters, through the firs of the Massif Central, to find it. AT a stone’s throw from a small ski resort, in Chalmazel (Loire), is a ghost holiday village. It’s been 20 years since the residence closed, and the asbestos-filled building was abandoned. « There were a lot of memories and atmosphere« , remembers Mayor Valéry Drop drip, between spite and nostalgia. In the 1970s, each piece of mountain became an El Dorado.
Faced with competition from large resorts in the Alps, the difficult to heat residence has become out of fashion, impossible to make profitable. The only solution today is costly demolition, estimated at over a million euros. « We built without worrying about recycling and the future of these buildings« , concedes the mayor. And it is far from being the only site in France to be dismantled. Empty holiday villages, disused ski lifts … There would be more than 150 ghost ski resorts, too small to survive or too little snow.
