Les 2 Alpes (pictured this week) plans to keep operating its glacier summer ski area through to July 7th this year.
The resort, which currently reports the snow lying over 3 metres (10 feet) deep up high, will officially end its winter season this coming Sunday, but then re-open the next day for a 10 week 'summer' glacier ski and snowboarding season from Monday 29th April.
Much of the glacier is reserved for team ski and snowboard training at all levels, but there are some slopes open to the public and it's also possible to take a ski lesson.
The late spring opening plan builds on a change last year from trying to run an increasingly problematic summer ski season from late June to late August, which increasingly had to be largely cancelled due to lack of snow left on the glacial ice, to opening through the latter half of spring instead as part of a transformation to being a 'four season ski resort'.
Last year Les 2 Alpes closed for five days between its winter season ending and 'summer' season starting and ended up staying open later into July than planned due to good conditions, it had originally thought it would stop glacier skiing in late June but continued a week or two into July. This year there's no gap between winter ending and summer starting and the planned glacier opening is 10 weeks rather than eight.
Two other French ski areas still offer summer skiing from a high of around 10 French resorts in the 1990s.
Tignes has shrunk from year-round glacier skiing to aiming to offer four weeks on the Grande Motte in summer, this year from 22 June to 21st July, conditions permitting. Val d'Isere is also aiming for four weeks, from June 8th to July 5th.
