Fran Power’s tips for a low carbon holiday on the slopes

Is it possible to have a sustainable ski holiday?

It’s been a bumper season for snow on the Alps with enough fresh powder to please the choosiest of skiers. But skiing is a carbon-intensive sport — about the only way to have an eco-ski break is to book a week on the artificial slopes in Kilternan.

It may also be a disappearing sport. By the end of the century, according to the World Glacier Monitoring Service, glaciers across most of the globe will have melted and the snowline will have retreated high up the mountains.

It’s a grim picture, but there are ways to lessen the carbon cost of taking to the pistes.

First, look at how you get there. A 2013 UK study showed that 57pc of the CO2 of the average European ski holiday came from travel to and from the resort. As a result, more are choosing to ride the ski train from St Pancras, says ski enthusiast Daniel Elkan of snowcarbon.co.uk ,a travel company specialising in low carbon ski packages. The bonus is a roomier luggage allowance and the surprising fact that door-to-door a train can actually beat a plane’s time. Irish skiers, suggests Elkan, could travel by sail/rail to London and stay over, or tailor a two-centre holiday.

Take the shortest flight possible, advises eco-skier Patrick Thorne of saveoursnow.com, and finish by train. He points out that flying to Europe still clocks up about a sixth of the CO2 of going to North America. Thorne adds, “Your average CO2 per person is lower in a tightly packed budget airline than in comfortable business class, so cheaper is better.” Then soothe your conscience by offsetting your emissions with an organisation such as climatecare.org or Irish charity, vita.ie.

The second half of your CO2 equation is trickier. Creating a ski resort is a lot like sculpting a vertical golf course. It involves clearing forests, altering water courses, reshaping the landscape and adding infrastructure such as roads, hotels, ski lifts, cable cars… In the process, the habitat of wild animals and plants is destroyed. And that’s before you tot up the CO2 of running a tourism business at high altitude.

This year’s snow may have been heavy — a blip in weather rather than in longterm climate trends — but retreating snowlines mean that resorts are under huge pressure to climb to higher, unspoilt areas to find snow and to build water reservoirs for artificial snow-making. Many are extending nearer to glacier areas, which, a spokesperson for the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) tells me, puts the sensitive species living there in danger.

Other resorts are extending the length of their season and that means ‘snow farming’, bringing in the bulldozers to shift harvested snow to a green landscape, or using snow cannons to create artificial powder. According to the WWF, this is increasingly common practice. In Austria, for example, about three-quarters of all slopes are covered in man-made snow, which may use chemicals to create the crisp powder that skiers seek out. “This needs a lot of energy and water,” says the WWF. “Each hectare of artificial snow consumes about 1m litres of water a year. In the Alps, some rivers are already carrying up to 70pc less water than the early 1990s before snow cannons were introduced.”

So, how do you square skiing with your green conscience? Choose a resort that is moving towards zero carbon for waste and energy. “Find ski areas that don’t have artificially groomed slopes, have good public transport connections, use renewable energy and only allow a certain number of skiers to avoid overcrowding,” advises the WWF.

In Europe, the Alpine Pearls is a string of 23 villages offering ‘soft mobility’ or car-free ski resorts with excellent bus and train links. Other resorts going low carbon are Saas-Fee in Switzerland, or Alvioraz, Chamrousse and Chamonix in France, while Vail in the US has gone all out and committed to being zero carbon by 2030, zero waste to landfill, with zero net impact to habitat (though you’ll clock up supersonic emissions getting there).

Saveoursnow.com details green resorts and hotels that are reducing energy and emissions, or check out protectourwinters.

org set up by US pro snowboarder Jeremy Jones.

Finally, look for a hotel that has eco credentials, such as the German Viabono, or Austrian Österreichisches Umweltzeichen, the Swiss label Ibex fairstay, the Blue Swallow or the Alpine designation the Flocon Vert.

Stay on piste: Heading cross country or off piste risks trespassing on the habitat of endangered species.