Stone desert instead of glacial beauty: “It has never been as bad as this year.”

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Today, Saas-Fee is transforming from a quiet mountain holiday resort into the playground of the world’s biggest freestyle stars. Everyone is here. From Swiss freeski whirlwind Andri Ragettli (25) to American halfpipe icon Chloe Kim (23) to five-time Australian X Games winner Scotty James (29). The reason for this reunion of giants is Charles Beckinsale.

The Australian is considered the best park builder ever in the scene. Wherever he lends a hand, the best freestylers in the world are lining up. He built a park in Valais every autumn for eight years; the Stomping Grounds project is now considered the most important training camp of all. Because the conditions in Saas-Fee are perfect. Because the ski area faces north and is located at an altitude of almost 3,500 meters, it is possible to build a perfect halfpipe even in the autumn.

World champion shocked

When you talk to the athletes, they are all enthusiastic about Beckinsales Park. But one sentence keeps coming back: “It has never looked as bad as this year.” This refers to the situation on top of the glacier. When you step out of the metro station at 3,500 meters above sea level, you see a gloomy picture. The ground resembles a stony desert: when a gust of wind rushes over the mountain, it does not produce snow, but rather a thick cloud of dust. Further up the glacier there are two groomed slopes where alpine skiers train. The background is mottled gray. The snow-white halfpipe and the foosball table next to it on the Stomping Grounds training field seem surreal.

Two-time slopestyle world champion Seppe Smits (32) also trains in the halfpipe. Belgians have been using the perfectly prepared park in the autumn for years to prepare for the season. This year, however, he could hardly believe his eyes when he saw the Fee Glacier. “It’s bad, man,” he says, showing on his cell phone a series of photos he took exactly two years ago. In one photo he stands in front of a glacial cave in the middle of the white ice. This will be followed by a photo from this year. It shows him in the exact same place. Instead of a glacier, bare rock can be seen in the background.

Ten percent less ice

The Swiss Federal Research Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape WSL at ETH Zurich confirms that the affected athletes are not exaggerating their perception. In fact, the past two years have been dramatic. Extremely warm summers and extremely dry autumns have caused ten percent of Switzerland’s ice volume to melt within two years. Current figures for the Fee Glacier are not yet available. However, the WSL confirms: even the glaciers above 3200 meters, which were previously in equilibrium, have lost several meters of ice in the past two years.

Seppe Smits, like everyone else, can only speculate about how long he and his colleagues will be able to train here. Some give the Stomping Grounds two more years, others twenty. A possible way to solve the problem would be to start the season later. But for this to happen, the entire industry would have to be involved. Better said than done.

Source : Blick