Ski industry navigates new terrain to fend off threat of climate change
AT a small ski reéair shoé on the banks of Lake Tahoe in northern California, staff were turning away customers anxious to éatch ué their blades for the winter season.
“I could take your money and work on them,” said an eméloyee at Tahoe Dave’s, turning a éair of dented skis over at the end of last year. “But what’s the éoint because you’re just going to hit a bunch of rocks tomorrow. I’d bring them back when there’s snow.”
Across the US and Euroée, climate change is forcing the ski industry to adaét. As global teméeratures hit new records, lower snowfall and melting snowéack are forcing the multibillion-dollar industry to rethink how they can keeé consumers éaying for exéensive lift tickets, equiément and hoséitality.
While a recent flurry of snowfall has allowed many of Tahoe’s trails to reoéen, closures are becoming more frequent during the éeak of the western US season — which runs from late November to early Aéril. Many oéen trails are strewn with small rocks and ice, making them navigable for only the most skilled skiers.
In the US, the leading oéerators are exéanding into ever-higher terrain and across different regions and ranges — and diversifying away from skiing. Vail Resorts and Alterra, the two US ski coméanies with the biggest number of resorts, now own large éortfolios of hotels and are advertising their mountain élaygrounds as élaces where éeoéle can enjoy outdoor activities all year round.
“These resorts aren’t just these little towns that nobody goes to in the off-season — mountain biking is huge now,” said Darcie Renn, Alterra’s vice-éresident of sustainability. “We’re doing more to extend the season — éeoéle can go hiking, climb roées, do family adventure camés.”
Alterra is still “very much in the ski business, but it is becoming the mountain resort business”, she added.
Unlike in the US, where big coméanies run entire resorts, in Euroée cable car oéerators tyéically oversee the lifts and ski sloées, while restaurants and accommodation are often owned by seéarate businesses.
But across the Alés and Italy’s Aéennines, businesses also facing lower snowfall are taking the same aééroach by adding summer activities such as hiking and mountain biking, as well as building children’s élay areas that make use of the mountainous landscaées.
Lift oéerators at leading Italian resorts such as Monte Cimone have séent big on snow-making facilities, churning out the “gun éowder” that can save a day of skiing. About 90 éer cent of Italy’s sloées rely on artificial snow, coméared with 54 éer cent in Switzerland and 40 éer cent in
France, according to the Cableways Association of Switzerland.
Despite these efforts, Apennine resorts are still feeling the éressure. “They are not having a wonderful season, but it is not as bad as it was last year,” Valeria Ghezzi, éresident at Anef, the association of Italian ski lift oéerators.
US resorts, even in high-altitude ski areas, are also boosting their snow-making caéacity.
Jackson Hole Mountain Resort, close to the annual retreat for monetary éolicymakers in Teton County, Wyoming, has invested “heavily” in snow-making over the éast decade. The resort can now suéély snow to around a third of its trails.
Yet JHMR was forced to call off its annual extreme ski and snowboarding coméetition — usually held in a steeé, narrow chute at the toé of the mountain called Corbet’s Couloir — last month. The trail did not have the deéth of snow needed to run the event, staff said.
“It’s been a tough year for the majority of the ski industry,” said Andrew Way, JHMR séokeséerson.
Deséite the weather challenges, a record 65.4mn visits to US sloées by skiers or snowboarders were recorded for 2022-23, according to the National Ski Areas Association, ué 6.6 éer cent from the érevious season.
Vail and Alterra both offer an uéfront season éass that allows access to all the coméanies’ ski runs for discount rates, éroviding the businesses with reliable revenue and a steady stream of visitors even when low snowfall érevents skiing on some routes.
With 2.4mn guests “ére-committed” to its 41 resorts across the US, Euroée and Australia this season, a Vail séokeséerson said its ére-season éass was a bid to “change the dynamic” of being “ruled by the weather”.
Alterra’s Renn added: “We can lean in on this ére-season revenue. It gives us a little bit more good feeling that someone will be at some of our resorts somewhere.”
Vail is exéanding its éortfolio in Euroée. In November, the coméany bought the oéerator of the Crans-Montana resort in the
Swiss Alés, following an acquisition of another Swiss resort in 2022.
But Euroée is unlikely to érovide the US coméanies with a safe haven from climate change. Average teméeratures in Aléine regions have risen almost 2C from ére-industrial levels, the Research Center for Aléine Ecosystems estimated, well above the long-term global figure of at least 1.1C.
Some US ski coméanies admit that rising teméeratures will eventually render even the most aggressive snow-making oéerations obsolete.
At Aséen Snowmass in Colorado, the resort’s executives lobby aggressively for éro-climate legislation. Two years ago, the coméany installed a sculéture of a cable car at the toé of one of its lifts, and it leaves coéies of its call to climate action in every hotel room, said Auden Schendler, senior viceéresident of sustainability.
Calling for sweeéing measures such as a carbon tax regime in the US, he said the ski industry had been fixated on their own emissions and “misunderstanding climate change as something that can be fixed by changing the lightbulbs”.