Ski resorts are diversifying in the face of the climate crisis – but it comes at a price for holidaymakers ⛷️ The industry is gradually returning to the preserve of the rich it was a century ago
in action? Yes. Some die hard deniers will still try to say that we’ve had dry spells before, but the current failure of winter to appear properly isn’t a blip. It follows a summer that saw record temperatures high in the Alps andhitting unprecedented rates. That summer followed last winter’s well below average snowfall. So it’s more about whether it’s getting worse must faster than feared.
Is this the beginning of the end for skiing? No. The beginning of the end began some decades ago when smaller ski centres began to close in the 1990s, partly due to climate change but equally as people wanted bigger resorts with better lifts. This trend has continued with ever more smaller centres closing while the big, high, corporate run resorts get bigger.The ski resorts have seen and warned the world of climate change for decades and used the time to prepare, to diversify.
A ski lift is closed temporarily due to the lack of snow in Le Revard, near Aix-les-Bains, in the French Alps, The world-leading Italian snowmaking company TechnoAlpin has seen sales of its SnowFactory machines sky rocket in recent years. These articulated refrigerated units have snow manufactured within then to spray out onto the slopes whatever the outdoor temperature. All five Scottish centres have these, enabling them to offer at least some skiing during the unpredictable British winter, even as snow cover on Highland slopes has become ever less reliable.
The true masters of the snowmaking art though are the Austrians though. They pile the pistes high with snow during cold autumn nights so resorts like Ischgl can open with 100km of slopes in late November. Even now the big Austrian areas like the Skiwelt and Saalbach have 200km of runs skiable, often white ribbons on green hillsides. Yes the snow melts, but it takes a while and hopefully the next cold snap arrives in time. Expect more of this in the decades to come.
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