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Olivier Erard, métabief was sort of the crossroads and investment in snow cannons should give a new impetus to the station.

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9 km track (a quarter of the ski area) are now equipped with snow cannons, Métabief. An investment of € 6.2 million which should allow this mountain resort, which is celebrating its 60th anniversary this season, experiencing a new dynamic. Interview with Olivier Erard, station manager for two years.

Terre de chez nous: The big news this season Métabief is the arrival of snow cannons …
Olivier Erard, station manager Métabief (OE): This is additional guns actually. Because it is often overlooked. But Métabief was a pioneer in snowmaking with the installation of a dozen guns in 1981, for the time to ensure a minimum of snow down the station.

How works such equipment?
O. E. : In fact, a water reservoir with a capacity of 100,000 m3 was excavated on the heights of the station. The challenge of such a facility is to have large quantities of water, instantly, and be able to use when cold beaches and thus produce a maximum of snow. The water is pressurized to 7-8 bar. Compressors manufacture of pressurized air and two lines (a water and air) depart on 9 km of track equipped with cannon on the 37 km, 25% of the area. There all the 100m was a look in which there is stitching on air line and water line before a valve system does make the air / water mixture. Can produce jusqu’de 40 cm snow. The idea of ??producing a sub-layer 20 cm in November and to add during the winter. Overall, it is an investment of € 6.2 million.

This investment was somewhere a matter of sheer survival for the station?
O. E. If there is now a sense of renewal, in recent years we were somehow a crossroads. With a central question: what is it still worth investing in Métabief? It is a mountain resort with great assets, but that is a little sleepy from 1989 to 1990. It was the first winter without snow. At the time, the private company that manages the station turned to the General Council by explaining that she would not survive a second winter without snow. The General Council knew he would update the economic shock absorber of the investments already made.

It is during this period that the station has diversified with mountain biking, and hospitality world championships in the early 1990s …
O. E. : We had to find other alternatives. Where biking. But it was not the goose that lays the golden eggs if you’ll pardon the expression. Today the bike, it’s a little more than 1% of turnover. If we separate this activity, an image is lost, a dynamic that also serves us for the winter without it manages to quantify precisely. At the time, he may have missed the development projects that we know today.

Today Métabief, it’s still a gulf of € 800,000 annual sponges by the General Council …
O. E. : The Department has always wanted to show that Métabief was important in the county tourist economy. Doubs is the top 50% of the latter and there Métabief weighs more than 50%. 1 euro spent on lifts by Métabief is 6 euros impacts on other economic operators.
But the fact was that other stations, as well as stratum Métabief live well and can generate a mountain economy. Especially here, we have differentiating factors in terms of product because we are lucky to have fully connected domain with a variety of slopes and landscapes that do not have neighboring stations of Jura, with which we complement .

L.B.

For more information, find the full article in our issue of January 3, 2014.

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