A shorter ski season as Swiss resorts see 40 fewer days of snow a year

AN EASTER skiing holiday in the Alps may soon be a thing of the past, according to a scientific study.

Ski resorts in Switzerland are experiencing almost 40 fewer days of snow cover a year than they did in the 1970s, a study by Neuchâtel University found. Snow is arriving an average of 12 days later than in the 1970s, and the summer snow melt is occurring around 25 days earlier.

The drop in snow cover at lower altitudes is already well documented, with ski resorts using artificial snow to make up the shortfall. But the survey found for the first time that the same pattern is occurring at altitudes as high as 2500m (8,200ft). That means that highaltitude resorts such as Zermatt and Saas-Fee, which have so far considered themselves immune, could also be threatened.

“Skiing won’t die out in the Alps – the winter snowfall is assured. But we’ll have fewer and fewer days when you can be sure the skiing will be good,” Prof Martine Rebetez, one of the authors of the study, said. The shortening of the snow season is a direct result of climate change, according to the study’s authors. The study is the first to prove a link between the drop in snow cover and rising temperatures.

Prof added: “If temperatures contin- ue to increase – and it looks like they will – there will be less snow.”

There is already concern over the long-term future of the Alpine glaciers, which are melting. “The only thing we can do now is reduce our emissions of CO2,” Prof Rebetez said. “If we go on emitting CO2 the temperatures will keep rising and the snow will melt.”