Ski competition ‘steals snow from vanishing glacier’ for race course

Henry Samuel
Mon, 23 October 2023 

A digger takes snow to dump on bald slopes, according to Swiss newspaper 20 Minuten - Capture de la vidéo ©20min.ch

Organisers of an international ski competition have been accused of stealing snow from a glacier in the Alps amid mild weather in the mountains.

Swiss newspaper 20 Minuten released images of diggers on the Theodul Glacier allegedly being used to prepare runs for the upcoming International Ski and Snowboard Federation (FIS) Alpine World Cup meet, set to take place on November 11-12.

Two-thirds of the race course for the event is on the glacier and while some parts are authorised, other sections run over protected areas, according to 20 Minuten.


It alleged that the diggers have been used to scrape out the equivalent of five football pitches worth of snow and ice from out-of-bounds zones both to create the off-limit runs and plug bald patches and crevasses elsewhere.

The glacier lies high above the Matterhorn Ski Paradise – a cross-border ski resort between Zermatt, Switzerland, and Cervino, Italy, and has already seen its mass shrink by 10 per cent in the last two years due to climate change.

According to drone footage obtained by 20 Minutes and GPS calculations, the start of the women’s race is to be positioned outside of the area designated for winter sports and the men’s course will also traverse large areas of ground deemed off-limits.

Environmental groups have slammed organisers for the alleged digging on the glacier, claiming it is the result of their insistence on staging races this early in the season.

The race course for November's International Ski and Snowboard Federation (FIS) Alpine World Cup meet

Last year, the same competition was cancelled because of a lack of snow.

The Protect Our Winters (POW) group launched a petition calling for the ski federation to become climate “leaders” and “adapt the competition calendar to reduce the impact of travel and respect the changing climate”.

Alexis Pinturault, the French triple world champion skier, expressed dismay and said: “Our sport is one of the most affected by global warming and, instead of changing our system, of adapting, we are doing the opposite.

“This competition, especially at this time of year, doesn’t make sense. The test is not in keeping with the times. It shocks everyone.”

Others accused the event’s organisers of placing money before the environment, arguing they had insisted on staging the race early because sponsors preferred drumming up public interest in skiing at the start of the season.

“To what extent should we adapt our environment to a schedule that we want? Or should we adapt our schedules to the environment?” asked Mikaela Shiffrin, an American World Cup alpine skier.


Meanwhile, organisers insisted the entirety of the competition’s track was within the permitted ski zone on the Swiss side at least.

In an interview with 20 Minuten, Franz Julen, president of the local organisation committee for the event, said although the digger images looked bad, no one was “breaking off the glacier”.

“That’s wrong, three excavators worked on the glacier for three weeks. However, they did not break anything, but filled and secured crevices with ice and snow,” he said.

“They made us a scapegoat. No one knows the issue of the receding glaciers as well as we do in Zermatt. We know what it’s about and take this sensitive topic seriously.”

However, with controversy mounting, authorities in the Wallis/Valais canton have ordered a halt to all digging on the glacier while they investigate.

Scientists predict that more than half of the Theodul Glacier will have disappeared by 2080 as the world continues to warm.