French ski area closes permanently: too little snow to hold on | outside

45 minutes from Annecy is idyllic La Sambuy, a small ski area with three lifts and a set of slopes reaching 1,850 metres. The location is beautiful, in the middle of the mountain with a stunning view of Lake Annecy, Aravis and Mont Blanc. But snow is increasingly absent.

“We were snowing from December 1 to March 30,” La Sambuie Mayor Jacques Dalix told CNN. However, last winter, it only snowed for “four weeks,” and even then it wasn’t a significant amount of snow, according to the mayor. As a result, “stones and rocks appeared very quickly on the slopes.”

Due to the lack of snow, the resort suffers an annual operating loss of about 500 thousand euros. Just running the elevators costs €80,000 a year. In short, it is no longer profitable to start a new ski season. Ski lifts are being dismantled.

There is now a message on La Sambuy’s website that the ski area is “permanently closed”, following the municipal council’s decision. The message read: “Thank you all for all the wonderful years we spent by your side.” However, La Sambuie still hopes to attract visitors as a summer and outdoor destination for walking, exercising and enjoying beautiful nature.

Not everyone wants to accept the decision. The association’s petition “Tous ensemble pour La Sambuy” (All together for La Sambuy) has received more than 1,900 signatures. The association is calling for the resort to be operated in a more sustainable way and for the cable car to be kept open for mountain hikers in the summer.

La Sambuy is not the only French ski area in crisis. Last year, Saint-Fermin, another small resort in the Hautes-Alpes department, chose to remove its ski lift after the winter season was shortened from months to weeks due to climate change.