Zermatt and Cervinia have been accused of illegally digging on the Théodule glacier in the build up to the 'Speed Opening' downhill races in November.
The first Alpine Ski World Cup downhill races are scheduled for consecutive weekends on 11/12 and 18/19 November 2023. They will be the first cross-border races in the World Cup's history as they will start from the Zermatt ski area in Switzerland and finish in the Cervinia ski area in Italy.
The races were due to take place in 2022 but were cancelled due to the warm autumn and consequent lack of snow.
To ensure the races go ahead this year, the race organisers ensured that considerable snow farming took place over the summer, storing snow from last winter at the side of the course.
However, according to an investigation carried out by the Swiss publication '20 Minutes' additional excavation of snow on the glacier has happened outside of the legally designated areas.
Filling in crevasses isn't unusual on glaciers, but the cantonal authorities ruled that any work should stop until the legality of the operations was clarified.
Franz Julen, the president of the Local Organization Committee denied that the glacier was being destroyed, nor that the work was out of bounds:
"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."
"The World Cup piste is entirely in the sector allocated to skiing on the Swiss side. All the necessary authorizations have been obtained from authorities and federations in both countries for the organization of these races."
To a certain degree, the issue is now a moot point, as significant snowfall has since fallen and the race route looks in good shape for the race.
However, lobbying groups such as Greenpeace Austria shared images on their social media accounts, accused FIS of "greenwashing".
This is not the first time FIS's environmental credibility has been questioned. FIS has previously bought offsets from Cool Earth, a company founded and co-chaired by FIS president Johan Eliasch.
The current petition to put pressure on FIS to "become the climate leader our sport needs" currently has over 30,000 signatures.
