Mountain Riders Big Spring Clean

Eco-volunteer groups from the different mountain ranges across France will get together and give their time and energy to turn their beliefs into concrete actions.

The aim of these days is obviously to clean-up the ski slopes, but the annual clean-up days are also a great occasion to raise the awareness of both individuals and professionals as to the amount of rubbish left discarded on the slopes, snow fronts and under chairlifts after the ski season has ended, and on the general state of our mountains. It's also a good time to empower the different stakeholders with a sense of responsibility for the state of our mountains, and to generally help people to realise that rubbish needs to be reduced at its source through a change in our habits and behaviours.

The event is supported by famous riders and alpinists such as Liv Sansoz, Mathieu Crepel and Polo Delerue.

In 2009, the operation mobilized 3500 volunteers in 55 mountain resorts and resulted 30 tons of rubbish being collected. Fifty-six per cent of that rubbish was recycled. The number one offender were cigarette butts. These were particularly noted for their quantity and presence in places where water runs into streams. Drink cans, food wrappers, batteries and even chemical products were also collected.

The weekend of the 29th and 30th May 2010 saw the peak of these ski slopes clean-up sessions, with other dates programmed throughout summer according to snow melting and seasonal activities.

In order to limit itís environmental footprint, Mountain Riders encourages participants to consume local and organic products and to use car sharing and numeric and eco friendly communication tools. This year main objectives are to intensify the scope of the event and mobilize more than 5000 volunteers particularly scholars and companies.

Go online to combine a concrete ecological action and an invigorating breath of pure oxygen!