Except this year, the challenge is having ski slopes at all.
December was Switzerland’s driest month on record. The country received .07 inches of precipitation, way down from the average of 3.5 inches. “There is much less snow than there should be in the Alps for the fourth year running,” according to Weather to Ski’s Fraser Wilkin. “Poor starts to the ski season are inevitable every now and again. But eyebrows start to rise when it keeps happening.”
The lack of snow means that some Alpine hotels closed temporarily or opened later. Mountain resorts normally do one-third of their business between Christmas and New Year, but according to the BBC, 56 percent of Swiss ski resorts and lift operators said they expect to take losses in December.
In France, warmer, drier days mean that many slopes are more lush green than powder white. Would-be ski bums told local news outlets that they spent their vacations hiking or cycling rather than swishing down the mountains. According to the Local, a French news site, some resorts “switched to summer activities, with mountainboarding on wheels in the resort of Les Sept Laux and with several other ski stations offering zip lines, hiking, and tobogganing.”
This lack of snow isn’t just disappointing – it also can be dangerous. It forces more skiers onto fewer runs, leading to accidents. And higher temperatures increase the chance of avalanches. In 2015, more than 100 skiers died in the Alps.
Skiers might have to get used to these crummier conditions. According to a recent study, climate change has had an outsize effect on the Alps. Researchers found that the snow season starts 12 days later on average than it did in the 1970s, and it ends almost a month earlier. Average snow depth has dropped by 25 percent. Author Martine Rebetez suggested that these findings will “have an impact on both winter sport activities and the water resources available to communities and ecosystems in summertime.”
Image: Washington Post
