Telesiege

Now that the snow has gone it's possible to see the way that the ski industry has destroyed huge parts of what would have been pristine Alpine landscape. I realise that the world has bigger problems than a few filled in gorges and some denuded forests but this is my home now and I want the mountains back the way they were.

This picture is of the lower slopes of Mont Chery in the resort of Les Gets. It might be difficult to make out but the photo is of two concrete pipes that carry water under what is now a piste and over what used to be probably a beautiful ravine.


Here's an example of what that ravine might have looked like.


Beautiful huh? The ravine's quite attractive too. Instead it now looks like this:


Landfill rubble and some chairlifts. Awesome. So you may say that I only have this opinion because we now randonee ski and don't need chairlifts so rest assured I'm not proposing the wholesale removal of all chairlifts.

However you have to ask: Does the Portes du Soleil really need the 650km of pistes it is so proud of advertising? Would people really stop coming if they reduced it to 400 or even 300? How many kilometres does the average skier actually use while they're not drinking vin chaud or eating saucisse frites?

I propose that chairlifts are systematically removed in two ways. Firstly, there are many places where there are two and sometimes three lifts to the top of the same ridge or peak. Unless there's no other way, I think there should only be one lift.

Secondly I think that, where possible chairs should be replaced with drags. Lightweight, less concrete and less of an eyesore which could be removed in the summer. Probably cheaper to run and maintain too.

Generally, at least in France, I think that pisted ski domains should be reduced in size by about 50%. I don't think that anyone would come out of the bars long enough to notice the difference.

The lift companies could put the money they would save from having fewer pistes to bash into back country avalanche management and charge a fortune for personal guiding, which would in turn create more jobs and give people an even more amazing ski holiday!

Vote with your skis and go rando next winter and don't give them your lift pass money!