On 31 October, while the big Alpine resorts were finishing their summer works, a Savoyard village opened its trails. Not with snow that fell this autumn, but with last winter's.
How you keep snow through a whole summer
The technique is called snowfarming. In April, instead of letting the snow melt, it is piled into a compact heap and covered with insulation. At Bessans, in Haute-Maurienne, roughly 28,000 m³ spent the summer under about fifty centimetres of sawdust. The resort has used the method since 2018.
Three kilometres, and not only for champions
The loop is three kilometres long, tracked for both skating and classic. It serves athletes returning to training early, but also the general public: a free nordic festival was held the day after opening. Our guide to choosing a nordic resort may help if you are new to it.
A technique that is spreading
Métabief built a stockpile in spring 2026 to trial the same approach, and in Finland Levi opened its first slopes on 2 October. These sites are not trying to cover a whole ski area, only to secure the start of a season.
What it does not solve
Bessans says it plainly: snowfarming is a start-of-season strategy, not a guarantee of snow for the whole winter. The rest depends on natural snow cover. Full details in Actumontagne's report.
Photo : Adobe Stock
