Parked at the bottom of the slopes, Gérard Giraud-Marcellin waits for the signal to start his snow groomer. Two trackers descend the mountain to reach the Orcières Merlette station, in the Hautes-Alpes. They slow down at his level and confirm with a gesture that the last skiers have passed. It’s 5 p.m. at the beginning of February and it’s the turn of the eight snow groomers to take over the ski area.
At 62, Gérard, nicknamed “Gardon” by the locals, knows the terrain like the back of his hand. He and his younger brother, Serge, 60, grew up in powder and never considered leaving their mountains. After around ten winters spent grooming, Serge chose in 1991 to specialize in the repair of vehicles whose tracks compact the snow to improve the quality of the slopes. Their father, Jean, was the first snow groomer at the resort in 1965 and passed on their taste for these machines.
The third generation has also been initiated into the profession. After a few seasons of grooming, Cyril, 26, Serge’s son, chose to stay in the garage with his father, while Manon, one of Gérard’s daughters, now alternates between ski instructor in winter, landscaper in spring and harvester driver in the summer.
An economy that relies on winter tourism
Steeped in snow sports, the Giraud-Marcellin family has seen skiing change in sixty years, skiers becoming more and more demanding, machines modernizing, snow becoming less abundant and temperatures varying more and more. suddenly from one night to the next. Here even more than elsewhere, the effects of global warming are perceptible.
The data recorded in the Alps and the Pyrenees by NASA’s Terra satellite are unequivocal: the surface covered by snow is among the lowest in recent decades. However, groomers cannot yet imagine the mountain without snow. In fact, the stakes are high for the inhabitants of Orcières, whose survival in this territory located at an altitude of 1,850 meters relies on the winter tourism economy.
Before the development of snow holidays, work was scarce. Those years are still in the minds of families in the canton. Jean is also one of those who were forced to leave the town to look for a job. In 1949, he left his native village to take over a farm in Chorges with his parents. When the mayor of Orcières, Camille Ricou, asked him to come back to participate in the creation of the station in 1962, he did not hesitate for a second. Between the earthworks, “which were done with pickaxes and shovels at the time”, carpentry, DIY and winter sports, there was work for everyone, says the 90-year-old retiree.
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