Where to Ski And Snowboard - Val d’Isère remains closed for summer skiing

Val d’Isère remains closed for summer skiing

1st July 2022, by Abi Butcher

Val d'Isère remains closed for summer skiing this year

While the southern hemisphere’s ski season has started with a bang, and Sunshine Village in Banff opened again this week for Canada Day for the first time in 20 years, two European glacier ski resorts will remain closed this summer — all further evidence of climate change.

Val d’Isère in France and the Mölltaler glacier in Austria normally open for summer skiing on their glaciers. But the resorts recently announced they won’t be open for any summer activity, although Mölltaler has said it will open in the autumn.

Summer skiing has been available in Val d’Isére on the Pisaillas glacier since 1958, and usually opens a handful of runs for the public and a similar number for race training. But this year the resort says a lack of snow last winter and high temperatures during May has rendered snow of insufficient quality – and quantity – to open for summer skiing.

The website Snow Forecast, which lists current open resorts, says the number of ski resorts open for summer skiing in Europe peaked at around 50 during the 1980s, but dropped to 40 by the year 2000 and now there are fewer than 20, with most open for ever-shortening periods of time during the summer.