It’s February and I’m in Zermatt. It's the high season for great turns, fondue, and amazing views of the alps spanning from Italy to France. While I’m still in awe of the amazing views of the glacier and the Matterhorn I can’t help but feel a little defeated. The mountain barely has any snow, and if it wasn’t for man made snow the resort would be unskiable.

Part of my decision to study in Geneva this semester is because I love skiing. Every weekend you could find me at the train station at six in the morning getting ready to hop on the train and go to a new resort. I went to Austria, France, Italy, and of course the Swiss Alps. Unfortunately, this has been the warmest winter in the Alps to date and unsurprisingly one of the worst seasons for skiing. Ironically, back home the United States was and still is having a record breaking snow year with snow storms dropping more snow in a day than certain parts of the alps have seen all year.

Lack of and an overabundance of snow both have negative effects. Europe’s reservoirs will be running lower this year and many parts of the United States will have to deal with massive flood events if the snow melts too quickly. Climate change is causing ski seasons to have greater variabilities, which from a business standpoint is risky. Skiing in the Alps is a 33 billion dollar industry, in the U.S. it's 50. It's unclear if these industries and all the jobs they support are sustainable, which is a big concern to all the local economies that survive off of winter sports.

Skiing as an industry is closely tied with our changing climate. As seen in the Alps this winter, a temperature increase of a few degrees can have catastrophic effects on the winter tourism industry. Since the 1980’s snowfall has been down by 40% and the length of the season has shrunk by a month. In January, the hopelessness of the situation was captured perfectly by Gstaad, a popular ski resort in Switzerland, using a helicopter to ferry in snow for one of the pistes at the resort.

The irony of the ski industry is that it relies on a stable climate and reliable weather patterns while at the same time being a high impact tourist activity. In the U.S. it's been calculated that the typical one way journey to a ski resort on a plane is 122 Kg of CO2 per person. In this respect Europe fairs much better as a greater percentage of skiers are able to use public transportation and avoid flying to get to their destination. I greatly benefited from this public transit and was able to easily reach any resort in Switzerland. No resort felt remote compared to what I had come to know in the U.S. Skiing in the Alps is much more concentrated and closer to population centers which allows for less of a carbon footprint when it comes to travel. Switzerland measures 348 km from east to west. From Denver, the closest population center, to Aspen's famous slopes is 319 km. Those 348 km in Switzerland encompass over 300 ski resorts, in the state of Colorado (where Aspen is located) there are less than 30.

Visitors at Aspen will either fly or drive from Denver and while they may love their time there, thought should be given to the extent of travel needed to get to a resort. There are many resorts that can be reached in a more sustainable way. Given their proximity to population centers or access by public transportation. As skiers we should prioritize ski resorts that can be reached more sustainably and if possible, ski closer to home rather than taking a flight.

A decrease in annual snowfall has led to an explosion of technologies to create artificial snowfall and for many resorts artificial snow is required to make the resort commercially viable. In the past year new snow making technology from Italian company TechnoAlpin allows ski resorts to make artificial snow in 80°F/27 °C degree weather. This technology requires more energy than traditional snow making machines that require below freezing temperatures to operate which are already energy intensive. Additionally, the machine uses 20 gallons of water per minute of operation. Snow making is an energy intensive process which also uses large amounts of water. A trend which will only continue to get worse as resorts rely more on this technology.

Snow making machines are crucial in the beginning and end of winter at which point in time resorts will not have enough natural snowfall to cover all of their terrain. This technology is attractive to resorts because most of the money (in U.S. resorts) is made during the Christmas holiday season. When people visit they want everything to be open and they are much less likely to come if the resort can’t make this happen. European school holidays tend to happen in February when there has been much more time for mother nature to cover rocks, stumps, and grass. However, European resorts still face extreme pressure to have a white Christmas. As tourists we need to change our mindset and recognize that the Christmas holiday period is too early most seasons to expect good conditions. The time window for good skiing is shrinking and if we adjust our expectations to meet this reality resorts will have less of a need to rely on harmful snowmaking operations.

Some resorts are trying hard to do their part. A shining star of sustainability is Laax, one of the Swiss megaresorts. They are the first ski resort to commit to carbon neutrality and self sufficiency by 2030 and have been pioneers in many aspects of sustainability. The resort has been running on hydroelectric power since 2008 with plans to utilize wind power in the future and even has plans to implement on demand gondolas and lifts so that energy isn’t wasted on empty seats. Laax is using energy and water efficient snowmaking by using AI to track temperature and the sun to know the best times for snowmaking.

A great video on Laax can be seen below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YfCjRHq_Uh8

A ski vacation requires many choices. From where, to when, to how to go skiing. These aren’t complicated questions but they are important. Snowsports are a privilege and they will disappear along with many other more important things if we are unable to make more sustainable choices.