A long line of around 80 skiers ready to buy their day passes for the slopes is not uncommon at popular downhill ski resorts in France.
However France’s ski lifts are presently shut due to the pandemic, and this queue is at Plateau de Beille, the biggest cross-country resort within the Pyrenees.
Since December, skiers have had to wait up to an hour and a half, which is exceptional for cross-country skiing. Ticket sales have jumped more than 30%, with numbers sometimes doubling from 700 to 1,400 skiers.
Manager Georges Vigneau has even had to call the police to shut the road several times to cease the resort from being overwhelmed, as strict social distancing guidelines are being enforced on the mountains just as much as in cities.
There are two main reasons for the surging popularity of cross-country skiing.
Most downhill ski resorts haven’t opened this yr and probably won’t all season, as anti-Covid restrictions mean ski lifts cannot operate. The other reason is that, with long periods of enforced lockdown and working from home, the French have been keen to leave cities for the mountains whenever they’ve been given the chance.
French school holidays begin from Friday evening, and a mass getaway is expected, even though it will be less frenetic than usual and most resorts will stay closed.
You can inform many of the skiers are out for the first time because as soon as they put on the lengthy and narrow cross-country skis they slip and fall over. They soon realize they have a lot of hard work ahead, particularly as the prepared ski trails are rarely flat.
- 12% of the French population goes skiing yearly
- 350 ski resorts in France, together with downhill and Nordic skiing
- €32 (£28) is the average cost of a downhill day ski pass
- €10-€12 is the cost of a cross-country or snowshoe pass
- 89% of all ski revenue is generated in the Alps and 8% within the Pyrenees
It’s not just cross-country skiing that is attracting new fans, however, a wide variety of sports activities known collectively as Nordic skiing.
“Sales of downhill skis are close to zero this yr,” says Aymeric de Rorthays, sales director of one of France’s biggest mountain equipment sports chains, Le Vieux Camper. “Sales of Nordic skis and snowshoes, or raquettes, have tripled or even quadrupled in Paris, with a new following among younger people who shunned the sport until now.”
Pre-Covid, Nordic skiing represented just 3% of skiing exercise within the Pyrenees and nationally just 1% of all skiing income in France. The question is whether the new following is a blip, or will last into the future.
Resort manager Georges Vigneau is realistic: “Many will return in the future to alpine skiing, their first love, however, others are taking cross-country skiing lessons because they like it. And we’re convinced many will come again from time to time – not every season, however once in a while, to cross-country ski or for snowshoeing.”
Marie Filotti, head of the Nordic France lobby group, says that even earlier than the pandemic, numbers turning to the sport had been rising in recent years. She points to government campaigns urging individuals to take up an extra outdoor activity, as well as medical advice that Nordic sports, especially snowshoeing, are extremely useful for health.
A number of the new skiers informed me they were attracted to the sport after watching the successful French biathlon team on TV within the 2018 Winter Olympics, and especially its highly telegenic, multiple gold medal winner Martin Fourcade.
At the moment the government is avoiding a new nationwide lockdown. It wants to see if restrictions introduced last week assist to bring down infection levels.
“The school holidays in February are so important to our mountain-related business,” says Tarascon Mayor Alain Sutra, who is also head of the local tourism board. He fears any move to a lockdown may mean the town spending 4 seasons recovering.
