Alpine ski industry heading for climate change ‘disaster’

Climate change is “a disaster” for the ski industry with Alpine resorts facing no more than one or two decades more of snow, according to a leading ski operator

John Mansell, chief operating officer at Hotelplan UK – parent company of ski operator Inghams – issued the warning at an Abta Delivering Sustainable Travel Conference in London, saying: “Ski will be a completely different industry in 10 or 20 years.”

Key takeaways

• Mansell described “a vicious circle” in which winter temperatures are rising, snow melting, rainfall increasing and washing away more snow, exposing bare rock which heats up and causes additional snow to melt;
• Mansell noted ski resorts are taking drastic action to try to survive, with many ‘farming’ snow, covering it with reflective sheeting, dragging snow into shaded valleys to save it for the following year;
• Resorts are increasingly using false snow, using snow cannons. That is very expensive and water intensive – not sustainable at all.

Get the full story at Travel Weekly UK