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Environment in Avoriaz

Discover the Avoriaz environment & eco-schemes


Now that climate change has become one of the world’s major issues, we thought it appropriate to compile these articles to help raise awareness of the environmental impact that we have on the mountains. 

The continued development of ski resorts creates significant pressure on the mountains and it’s eco-system, and it is an undisputable fact that the glaciers are retreating. So if you want to know how you can help preserve the mountains for future generations, read on…

Protecting the local environment




Environmental tips

  • Do not leave litter on the slopes. When the snow melts at then end of the season, litter left behind by skiers and boarders will still be there. Bin it or take it home with you. Did you know it takes up to two years for an Orange peel skin to be absorbed by the earth; and a cigarette butt takes up to five years!! If you find litter on the slopes, be responsible and do the right thing - pick it up!
  • Do your bit to reduce global warming on holiday and at home. In hotels, re-use your towels each day, and where possible re-cycle your household waste. Many french ski resorts now have excellent recylcing facilities for plastics, cans and paper; glass and other waste. Additionally, if you're not in your chalet or hotel room, switch off electrical appliances when not in use. A TV that is viewed for less than one hour a day can actually use more energy when left on standby than it does during the time is being watched!

What is a glacier?

A glacier is a "continuously moving body of ice" that forms when the balance between its accumulation differs from that of its ablation. In real terms this means that a glacier will form where the accumulation of snow and ice inputs (‘accumulation’) are more significant to its melting and evaporating process outputs (‘ablation’). It is this continuous process that determines a glaciers size (thickness) and length. Other factors such as the reflectivity of the glaciers surface, the annual precipitation, humidity and wind speed will also affect a glaciers input and output balance.


As our climate changes, so does the balance of these 'inputs' and 'outputs'. Sustained periods of warm temperatures in both the summer and winter seasons are currently affecting the thickness and advancement of the worlds glaciers. As global warming leads to insufficient snow falls (as wamer temperatures means it now falls as rain), glaciers that would normally grow are now finding that there is insufficient snow to replace the melt process.

Over the past few years, warmer summer and winter temperatures in the French and Swiss Alps have impacted on the length and duration of snowfall during the seasons. European ski resorts are the first places where the impacts of these initial climate changes are being seen. Several glacial ski resorts have reported that they are suffering from significant and serious glacial melting which has potentially been caused by these temperature variations experienced in recent years. Of these ski resorts: TignesLes 2 AlpesAlpe d’Huez and Avoriaz have all expressed varying amounts of glacier shrinkage however the visual evidence and impact in some mountain resorts is more evident than others. The once popular summer skiing destination of Alpe d'Huez, was not able to open it's glacier for summer skiing in 2006 as there was 'a real problem with the glacier disappearing'. Although the winter season of 2005/06 recorded good snow levels, there was not enough sufficient enough to stop the glacier retreating. 

Glacier shrinkage

Scientist have been watching global warming, and 'mans effect on climate change for some years now. In discussing global climate change and its impact on the world’s glaciers scientists from the University of Zurich Switzerland recently argued that should current temperatures increase overall by between two and five degrees, the European Alps could worryingly see some 80 per cent of glacial cover being lost by the end of the 21st century. In addition to this, the World Environmental Day (June 5th, 2007) was attended by many leading climate experts who noted that snow falls levels were 1.3% down on previous decades. Scientists there warned that a rise in temperature of only one degree could raise the snowline in the Alps by 150metres which would have a serious impact on Europe’s low lying ski resorts.


The Sarennes glacier is located in the Grandes Rousses massif in the Southern Alps. Over the past 20 years the glacier has been significant reduction in glacial mass with more than 20 metres of its glacier disappearing. In contrast to this, Tignes has similarly noted a reduction in its glacier mass on the Grand Mott, albeit though at a less dramatic rate. Didier Richard, a glacier specialist with the CEMAGREF in Grenoble (an agricultural and environmental engineering facility), commented recently that the Alpe d’Huez glacier will ’without doubt have disappeared by 2050!’ which is worrying for the environment and surrounding wildlife, but also for the resort’s tourism industry and water supplies. In 2006 Alpe d'Huez chose not open the glacier for summer skiing as it had done for many previous summers. This was not due to a lack of snow that winter, in fact, the snow record for the winter 2005/06 season had been pretty good for the Southern Alps. At the time, a spokesman for the resort commented that there was 'a real problem with the glacier disappearing'.

Glacial shrinking is not without risks either. Frequently as glaciers retreat large glacial lakes will form behind them. Where these glacial lakes are held behind moraine dams there is always the potential that they the ice and pressure could cause the moraine to break creating widespread flooding in the valleys below. In the Himalayas for example, there has been many examples where glacial lakes pose a threat to local valley communities. Closer to home, in 1892 a lake that was fed from the Glacier de Tete Rousse burst its banks emptying 200,000 cubic metres of water into the town of St. Gervais, killing 200 people. Only recently, a large glacial lake measuring five hectares across and 25 metres deep formed due to summer melt at the back of the Glacier de Rochemelon (3218m) in the Savoie area of France. In this instance, current glacial experts were monitoring the situation and the lake was drained to avoid any risk to the local valley population. Phew!

Probably one of the most visual examples of 'Glacier Meltdown' is in Chamonix, France. Chamonix is home to some of the most well known glaciers namely, Mer de Glace (sea of ice), Glacier d'Argentière and the Glacier des Bossons. All are pretty spectacular pieces of scenery but statistical analysis of glaciers indicates that many European glaciers have been steadily receding since the early part of this century. Take for example the Glacier des Bossons. Long hot and dry summers during 1995 and the early 2000s saw 'glacier melt' accelerate significantly, loosing some twenty meters in length and volume. The summer of 2003 was the hottest European summer on record, with temperatures in Chamonix alone reaching nearly 40 degrees! The same has happened in the summer of 2015 when a heatwave throughout the month of July saw temperatures rise above seasonal average and the Bossons Glacier lost several chunks of ice from the bottom.


Further examples of 'Glacial meltdown'

Glacier wrapping

Glacier wrapping is becoming more common as glacier mass is depleting at an alarming rate. With the threat of up to 70 per cent of Swiss glaciers disappearing in the next 30 years, the ski resort of Andermatt (Switzerland) decided in the summer of 2005 to wrap their disappearing Gurschen glacier. The football-field-sized specific foil acts in reflecting the suns rays thus protecting the glacier from heat extremes. The protective foil is a combination of polyester and polypropylene material which when placed on the glacier prevents the top snow layer from melting, essentially keeping the cold in and the heat out. It’s not cheap to wrap a glacier either. In covering approximately 3000m2 of the Gurschen glacier, it cost about €65,000 so it’s not really suitable for covering an entire glacier area or the ice sheets in the Antarctic for example.


Austrian resorts also started wrapping their glaciers in 2005 and by the end of the 2005 summer season, the Swiss resort claimed to have successfully saved a significant amount of the glacier. At the time of the Swiss wrapping, Wener Schnappauf the environmental minister for the Bavarion (Bavière) region also called for a renewed worldwide effort to protect the surrounding environment. Schnappauf claimed that at the current rate of global warming, the Zugsptize glacier on the southern slopes of Garmisch-Partenkitchen ski area in the Bavarian Alps (at 2962 metres) would completely disappear within twenty years. One hundred and fifty years ago the Zugsptize glacier covered a terrain of around 329 hectares; this figure has reduced somewhat in the past few years with its coverage reportedly closer to a mere 98 hectares! It’s a worrying statistic!

The French resort of Val Thorens Europes’ highest ski resort, had hoped to cover 750m2 of the glacier de Chavière in the Vanoise national park. SETAM, the Val Thorens lift company needed to convince the powers that oversee the Vanoise National Park as the area that was to be protected was on the perimeter. In June 2007, it was rejected on the grounds that it was part of the National park.


  • Gurschen glacier, Andermatt in Switzerland
  • Mont Fort glacier, Verbier, Switzerland
  • Zugspitze glacier, Garmisch-Partenkitchen, Germany
  • Stubai & Pitztal Glacier, Austria

Will glaciers become a thing of the past?

The French Mountaineering Federation (FFCAM) has put out an appeal to any interested parties, to collect as many photographs of glaciers, both past and present, as part of an awareness campaign highlighting the plight of France’s glaciers. The intention is to put together a photographic exhibition of glacial evolution, illustrating how they have changed over the years. If you have any “before and after” photos of glaciers that you would like to share then please send them to the FFCAM.

By 2050 the vast majority of glaciers in the Alps will have disappeared. This was the sobering verdict scientists reached at a conference on climate change held in Vienne this week. The slow but steady retreat of the Alpine glaciers is almost tangible, in the Tyrol, in Austria for example, an annual reduction of 3% or 1m has been observed. Given that the average depth of alpine glaciers is only 30m, experts are convinced that if the trend continues the only surviving glaciers will be those which form above 4000m of altitude. The inevitable meltdown would mean floods which could threaten the people who live in the valleys. Climatologists called for preventative measures to be taken.