Industry News
If you can’t wait a couple of months to hit your slopes, then maybe head to France. Grande Motte Glacier in Tignes is reopening for skiers next week, on Saturday the 29th of September 2018 beginning the start of 7-months of uninterrupted skiing.
Six lifts are scheduled to open including the Perce Neige funicular, the Grande Motte cable car, the Panoramique, and Vanoise chairlifts, and the Champagny, Rosolin, and Termignon drag lifts. The Dahu, Rimaye and Face pistes will be available to skiers from September 29th while new pistes will open as autumn progresses and conditions allow, including the Double M piste (Lanches chairlift). More and more terrain will open as and when possible until the connection with Val d’Isere at the end of November. Initially, 13-miles of terrain will be open, at an altitude of 9,850-feet.
Opening earlier than others and closing later than others, Tignes is a resort well known for offering the most ski days in a season in France. In the past, before the effects of climate change, their motto was “365 days skiing”. At present, it does not manage to stay up and running all year, but anything is possible and they would if they could.
Discounted ski passes will be available until November 23rd 2018, costing only €33 ($39) for one day and €198 ($230) for 6 days.
Elsewhere in the Alps, Zermatt in Switzerland, which operates Europe’s highest lifts (two T bars that only open summer and autumn) reaching almost 12,800-feet, and the Hintertux glacier in Austria’s Ziller Valley are both open year round. Zermatt’s neighbor Saas Fee opens mid-July each year so by the start of autumn is already two months in to its 10-month-long snowsports season.
