Late-season skiing

There’s trouble brewing in the Alps. Skiers arriving in the mountains over Christmas were greeted, not by snow-clad chalets and oodles of fresh powder, but by thin ribbons of artificial snow snaking down green mountainsides.

For the fourth time in as many years, the ‘white gold’ had failed to materialise. Whether climate change is to blame is anyone’s guess (I’m no scientist), but it’s certainly a worrying pattern. Parts of the Alps experienced their driest December in 150 years, and in many French resorts the only snow for Christmas was artificial.

Initially it looked as though holidaymakers had learnt their lesson. Until this year’s unseasonably early November snowfalls, tour operators could hardly shift Christmas holidays — even with up to 50 per cent off. The fear of brown slopes, like the ones seen in recent years, was too great. In the storm’s wake bookings spiked, but that was it for snowfall. Switzerland endured its driest December in 150 years; the French Alps the worst for 130 years. The adage ‘snow in November doesn’t mean snow in December’ rings ever true.

There hasn’t always been such demand for Christmas skiing. The early ski pioneers certainly didn’t expect guaranteed snow from early December till April. But as tourism boomed and the small farming villages transformed into big businesses, resort bosses looked to offer ever-longer ski seasons.

But ski resorts’ greed — even with improved snowmaking capabilities — shouldn’t be to the detriment of a great skiing holiday. Forget December, forget Christmas, and even New Year for that matter. Skiing later in the season is the real treat. Regardless of what happens over the festive period, the snow will materialise; it always does. It may come soon afterwards, as it did in Switzerland and Austria, or it may take a little longer (resorts clustered near Geneva are still in dire need of a big dump).