How Val Thorens is ready for the 2020-21 ski season.
Here is how Val Thorens is getting ready now for the 2020-21 ski season. Val Thorens is the highest ski resort in Europe, starting at 2300 m and with pistes up to 3200 m. The resort is part of Les 3 Vallées, the biggest ski carousel in the world. Within the whole 3 Vallées, the lower slopes are around 600 m (at Brides les Bains).
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90% of the resort is above tree-line. It is what here Britons call “snow-sure” resorts. I never understood that claim being Argentine born. Las Leñas has a base of 2230 and the top at 3400+ and I remember some seasons with no snow at all! But well, obviously there is more chance to have better snow the higher you go!
Lift in Val Thorens. Photo. C.Doucret. OT Val Thorens. How Val Thorens is ready for the 2020-21 ski season.
But coming back to Val Thorens, the resort has the longest ski season in Europe. It starts on December 1st and goes all the way to May 9th. A whole 170 days of ski season. It was going to open on November 21st, but with the new decree in France locking the country for one month, it changed. Let’s hope that resorts can open in December!
If you go to Val Thorens, all the lodging is slope-side- you don’t need to move to go to the lifts. The trails run between the buildings. The resort is not the prettiest, but they have been renovating façades using wood and now is looking much better. Now it looks more village-like.
How can we envision ski resorts opening with social distancing for the 2020-21 ski season?
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OK, the ski season 19-20 has been cut short, at least we have to count ourselves lucky, as we could ski in December and February as a family, and I even had a cheeky escape in January with some mum friends. We were going to go back in April, but oh well. I feel sorry for those families going only in Easter and having to miss their holiday. But with the crisis and all the people losing loved ones, having to stay at home is not so bad really.
Now, if I start thinking about next season, I don’t have to book lodging, as we have our home in the Valdigne region of the Aosta Valley. But usually by now, I would have booked my Eurotunnel ticket and my hotels on the way up in Chaumont (the Ibis Styles Chaumont Centre Gare), and the Novotel or Holiday Inn in Reims for when we come back….
Visiting the mountains is a good option if you are afraid of too many people on the lifts, there are still lots of activities to do while social distancing. How can we envision ski resorts opening with social distancing for the 2020-21 ski season? Photo by The-Ski-Guru. Monte Grivola seen from Morgex, AO.
So far, I am in no hurry to do anything, we’ll have time. I do have a Eurotunnel reservation for late July and the Ibis Styles in Chaumont also for July, I’ve figured out that the way back could be in a different place needed be; and I don’t know if we in the UK are going to be allowed to be crossing the Channel by then… so it will be wait and see.
How social-distancing would work in ski resorts?
So how would ski resorts open in the winter (and summer, as they are getting ready for that now?) They are talking of a whole lot of new measures to keep their guests and employees safe.
There would be much less overcrowding for sure. And that for me would be a silver lining.
Winter walks are always lovely, and you can have the space to relax in the mountains. How can we envision ski resorts opening with social distancing for the 2020-21 ski season?
I am the kind of person that likes skiing with no people around, I think I’ve written this before, and as I have kids in school age, we are stuck to go on holidays when everyone is going on holidays…. I remember growing up in Argentina, we could take some time off for going skiing during August, avoiding the Winter Holidays in July and not being penalised. There you get (at least when I was growing up, many moons ago), 25 days of absenteeism per year. That means, if coming late by one minute in the morning, you got half an absenteeism. If coming late by more than 5 minutes, you missed your day- you could count that everyone was in time – not sure why they don’t set this up in the UK, as I keep on seeing people coming late (including me, even I live across from the school!). Also, if then you take some holidays, that is fine, you count the days off, but, if you get ill and have to be absent and you pass the 25 days, you repeat the year …. No ifs and buts… (a well-known phrase in the UK- that I actually don’t like.)
Mt Baldy in Southern California just reopened the ski season, and they are asking guests to come at different times, and only four people can go up every 10 minutes. They only have chairlifts, so that is easier. The people are asked to go alone, unless they are in a family group.
UK ski industry operators and agencies have felt a huge impact by Covid-19 but are optimistic than resorts will open next winter.
A study of UK snowsports industry professionals conducted by Ski Press and Skipedia have revealed the damage that Covid-19 has had on their business and what they believe the future might hold for next year.
Some of the key findings concluded that:
82% of companies suffered reduced sales due to the premature end to the 2019-20 season, with two-thirds experiencing lower than usual sales for winter 2020-21 so far.
Almost 1 in 5 have made staff redundant and a quarter are concerned they could go out of business.
Although almost all expect ski resorts to open next winter, over 70% expect this to be with social distancing restrictions in place.
Crans-Montana in winter – Photo: @CMTC_luciano_miglionico. UK ski industry operators and agencies have felt a huge impact by Covid-19 but are optimistic than resorts will open next winter.
With the 2019-20 season cut short, the pressures on UK ski professionals started during March when all Alpine countries started closing ski resorts following the lockdown in Italy. By the middle of March, Austria, France and Switzerland had closed all of its ski resorts and holidays for the rest of the season were cancelled.
60% of winter sports businesses including tour operators and equipment retailers have now furloughed staff members. 17% of respondents have had to make redundancies too.
Whilst 64% are saying they are experiencing reduced sales for next winter, two-thirds expect that it should be ‘business as usual’ this winter, anticipating that they will be able to offer their normal services.
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