The glacier was to remain open for six weeks, until July 31. Early closing: the summer ski season only lasted two weeks.
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The summer glacier in Tignes (Savoie) – the Grande Motte glacier – closes a month early due to global warming, reports France Bleu Pays de Savoie on Friday July 1. A closure that occurs a month in advance because “the melting is increasing.”
The Grande Motte glacier in Tignes, the only summer glacier still open in the Pays de Savoie, closed its doors on Friday at midday. An early closure: the glacier (which opened on June 18) was to remain open for six weeks (until July 31). But the conditions are not met, the state of the glacier has deteriorated more rapidly than in past years. The summer ski season therefore lasted only two weeks.
“We had quite limited snow cover this winter and relatively mild conditions with good weather”explains Frédéric Bonnevie, the director of the Tignes piste management. “Suddenly, this translates this summer into a limitation of exploitation”. And the director continues: “It’s really atypical, we see that the climate transition is well and truly in place (…) The melting is increasing, we have seen it throughout this winter, we have had half as much snow as ‘habit.”
The only nearest summer glacier still open in the region is Les Deux Alpes in Isère (the Pisaillas glacier in Val d’Isère did not open this year).