The famed Swiss ski resort of Chamonix is spending €60 million to try to save its most famous ski run and its future from climate change which is steadily shortening the world’s longest wild or off-piste ski run.
Melting glaciers have consistently reduced the length of the 20km Vallée Blanche run, which begins high up a glacier at the end of a 3800-metre cable car. A first step, to be completed by late 2023, is a new cable car that will take skiers to a higher start point to compensate for the loss of the lower end.
In addition to the skiing improvements, the plan includes building the Glaciorium, an “international glacier and climate interpretation centre,”high on the glacier, to give visitors an opportunity to explore and understand glaciers and what is happening to them from up close. It, too, will be reached by the new cable car.
