<
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/dec/27/alps-france-skiing-snow-warming-resorts-closing-ceuze-landscape>
"When Céüze 2000 ski resort closed at the end of the season in 2018, the
workers assumed they would be back the following winter. Maps of the pistes
were left stacked beside a stapler; the staff rota pinned to the wall.
Six years on, a yellowing newspaper dated 8 March 2018 sits folded on its side,
as if someone has just flicked through it during a quiet spell. A half-drunk
bottle of water remains on the table.
The Céüze resort in the southern French Alps had been open for 85 years and was
one of the oldest in the country. Today, it is one of scores of ski resorts
abandoned across France – part of a new landscape of “ghost stations”.
More than 186 have been permanently closed already, raising questions about how
we leave mountains – among the last wild spaces in Europe – once the lifts stop
running.
As global heating pushes the snow line higher across the Alps, thousands of
structures are being left to rot – some of them breaking down and contaminating
the surrounding earth, driving debate about what should happen to the remnants
of old ways of life – and whether to let nature reclaim the mountains."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
