Claude Folmer was about 40 years old the first time he visited the Mer de Glace, the largest glacier in the French Alps. He remembers enjoying the panoramic view from the observation platform and then going on a short ice hike where he toured the ice cave carved into the surface of the glacier.
Four decades later, on a mild, sunny morning in early February, Mr. Folmer — now 80 and accompanied by his grown son, Alain — was looking at the same glacier. He was shocked by the change.
“The difference is huge. The glacier was right below,” Mr. Folmer said, gesturing to the gravel-covered river of ice now more than 800 vertical feet below the viewing platform. “For someone who doesn’t know what it used to be like, it’s a beautiful scene. But when you know the difference, it’s really sad,” he said.
Mr Folmer, who lives near the French town of Albertville, traveled by train to Chamonix, the mountain town from which visitors can easily visit the glacier. He and his son happened to be there on the opening day of a gondola that takes visitors between the viewing platform and the ice below. The Folmers weren’t aware of the new lift — which replaces an older gondola built in 1988 — but when they got the news, neither was happy.
“At some point, you have to leave the glacier alone,” said the younger Mr. Vollmer. “There are big machines installed. Where will it stop?’
It’s a question many travelers are wondering as climate change threatens a growing number of tourist destinations – from glaciers to coral reefs, ski slopes to low-lying islands. For thousands of years, humans have raced to be the first to climb a peak, cross a frontier, or document a new species or landscape.
Now, in some cases, we are racing to be last.
The term last-chance tourism, which has gained traction over the past two decades, describes the urge to visit endangered places before they disappear. Studies have found that the attractiveness of the missing can be a powerful motivator. But in many cases, the presence of tourists in a fragile site can hasten the site’s collapse.
There is some evidence that a visit to an endangered place can inspire meaningful behavioral change in visitors, potentially helping to offset the negative effects of a trip. But the research is still in its early stages and the results are mixed.
In a place like Chamonix – where tourism is the mainstay of the economy and where climate change is already having a tangible impact on tourism offerings – such tensions play out in real time. The shift to a new way of interacting with the landscape may be slow in coming, as many jobs – as well as tourism habits – are embedded in the old way of doing things. But some are already pioneering a new approach, and with the effects of global warming accelerating, change will have to come quickly.
A new gondola in Chamonix
The Mer de Glace, or Sea of Ice, which once reached from the slopes of Mont Blanc to the valley floor at Chamonix, has been attracting visitors for almost three centuries. Mark Twain, Mary Shelley and Alexandre Dumas were among the first tourists to visit Montenvers, the site overlooking the Mer de Glace, and helped spread the glacier’s reputation.
These days, in a typical year, about half a million people visit Montenvers, said Damien Girardier, the head of the site, which is owned by the town of Chamonix and managed by Compagnie du Mont Blanc. Most visitors arrive via the red cogwheel train that connects the viewing platform to the middle of Chamonix, although some arrive on foot — or on skis. Every year, around 80,000 people ski the Mer de Glace, a classic descent from the Alps called “la Vallée Blanche” (the White Valley) that ends near the terminus of the glacier below the viewing platform. Then they either ski up to Montenvers — or take the lift.
The new lift, which opened the first weekend of February, was built about a quarter of a mile up the valley from the 1988 lift, anticipating further retreat of the glacier. In the 35 years since this old lift was built, the glacier has retreated so much that about 600 steps had to be installed between the bottom of the lift and the ice surface. This made it more difficult for the elderly and anyone with reduced mobility to reach the glacier from Montenvers. It also made a great uphill climb for tired Vallée Blanche skiers at the end of a long day.
Mr. Girardier said the new elevator, which cost 20 million euros, or about $21.6 million, was built under strict environmental controls. Its colors were chosen to harmonize with the landscape, special cable was used to minimize noise, and most of the building material was transported to the site by train. The gondola was also built in a way that allows future generations to dismantle the structure easily — if they want to.
“In 15 years, the end of the glacier will probably have reached the elevator,” Mr. Girardier said, “but that’s okay. When you go to Iceland, people walk for an hour to get to the glacier. For us, it will be the same.”
The new lift is part of a larger project that will also include the construction of a new educational exhibit, called the Glaciorium, about glaciers and climate change. The center is scheduled to open later this year, although some of the funding has yet to be confirmed.
Meanwhile, day-trippers can visit the ice cave, which has been renovated with a new design and informational displays, while skiers will be able to take the lift to complete a day of skiing in the Vallée Blanche, a major source of work. for the Chamonix guiding community.
Julien Ravanello, a mountain guide with the Compagnie des Guides de Chamonix, leads around 20 trips to the Vallée Blanche per season. He said the new lift will make things simpler on a route that – with a guide – is within the grasp of most intermediate skiers.
“Above all, we like it because it shows people the universe of high mountains,” said Mr. Ravanello, who added that such accessible glacier skiing “is almost unique in the world.”
Capucine Pénicaud, a global health consultant and yoga instructor living in Chamonix, skis the Vallée Blanche once or twice a year.
“It’s a place I love and at the same time it makes me very sad,” Ms. Pénicaud said of the glacier, adding that her visits to the Mer de Glace almost always move her to tears. “I think there’s a real opportunity to go there, because you can understand global warming — and feel it,” he said.
But Ms Pénicaud is not happy about the new lift. She said she didn’t mind the 45-minute hike to the viewing deck at the end of a Vallée Blanche run. Also, the concrete for the project was mixed in the Chamonix Valley, near where he lives, and then flown by helicopter to the site. “For the past two years, I’ve seen helicopters bringing concrete here every half hour. How much gas? How much pollution? How much concrete?’ he said.
Compagnie du Mont Blanc confirmed that concrete for the project had been flown in by helicopter, but added that the train had been given priority to transport other building materials “for ecological as well as economic reasons”.
Last chance tourism
Can a visit to such a site cause behavior change?
Researchers at Mer de Glace have found that exposure to its fragile environment can inspire people to adopt environmentally friendly behavior – or at least to declare their intention to do so in a questionnaire.
A 2020 survey of summer visitors to the glacier found that 80 percent said they would “try to learn more about the environment and how to protect it.” Another 82 percent said they would stop visiting glaciers if doing so would protect them, while 77 percent said they would reduce water and energy consumption.
More research will be required to see if tourists follow suit. However, based on the survey results, the researchers concluded that using last-chance tourism as an opportunity to educate visitors about climate change – while engaging people’s emotions and showing them concrete steps they can take to environmental protection – could maximize the environmental benefits of this type of tourism.
Others are skeptical. Karla Boluk, a professor in the leisure and recreation studies department at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, pointed to her research that found the majority of last-minute tourists in two Canadian locations were reluctant to pay for carbon offsets.
“There is an ethical paradox of last-chance tourism, and it involves the ethical question of whether travelers recognize and respond to the harm they promote,” Dr Boluk said.
“It is important for us to engage in careful decision-making and careful research to ensure that we do not contribute to the collapse of these places by exacerbating the problems caused by climate change,” he said, adding that tourist “destinations” are also places. locals call home.
A different approach
Elsewhere in the Chamonix Valley, staff at the Alpine Ecosystems Research Center are working to understand the potential impact of a different approach to ecotourism: citizen science.
Colin Van Reeth, an ecologist and manager of citizen science programs at the center, described field trips he and his colleagues have organized in which participants are asked to stop at a pond during a hike to document the frogs they see. “For us, it’s a question of getting tourists involved in naturalist observations of the mountains,” Dr Van Reeth said. Their hypothesis is that by enhancing people’s sense of connection to the natural environment, they might be able to inspire people to make lasting and meaningful changes in their behavior.
“It’s about identifying those small steps, those small stages of transformation,” Dr. Van Reeth said.
Some don’t need a push.
Mr Folmer, the 80-year-old visitor, standing in view, said he gave up flying two years ago because of his concern about the climate and makes local trips on his bicycle whenever he can.
“I don’t blame people who fly occasionally when they go on vacation,” Mr. Vollmer said, looking down at the glacier. “But when you see this, you think that each of us can make a little personal effort.”
Paige McClanahan, a regular contributor to the Travel section, is the author of The New Tourist: Waking Up to the Power and Rils of Travel, to be published by Scribner’s on June 18.
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