
Climate Change Is Killing Alpine Skiing as We Know It - pseudolus
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-01-15/climate-change-is-killing-alpine-skiing-as-we-know-it
======
fiblye
People have adapted almost completely to the idea of snow being some rare,
special event. People who fondly remember playing in the snow nearly everyday
in winter during their childhood have come to expect 50-60 degree January
afternoons and think of snow as a special occasion. These people are saying
those twice a year snowfalls are proof that nothing is changing, while knowing
full well that they were wearing layers of coats and scarves years ago and
walking around in t-shirts now.

Coffee could go extinct and our generation would just have nostalgic idle
chats about it here and there, but nothing would really change. Kids who never
drank coffee would grow up and never think about it, much less care.
Bangladesh could completely sink tomorrow, and you'd have people 15 years from
now saying it's all some grand conspiracy and Bangladesh never really existed.
You'd just have people saying climate never changed and taking family trips to
the beach would be a good way to cool off on those hot Nunavut February
nights.

People just kind of adapt to whatever's happening around them. No matter how
crazy or awful it is, people just get apathetic after a while. And so long as
someone has financial motivations to push the idea that this is normal, people
will keep thinking it is and they'll forget just how much things changed.

~~~
tw04
> People have adapted almost completely to the idea of snow being some rare,
> special event. People who fondly remember playing in the snow nearly
> everyday in winter during their childhood have come to expect 50-60 degree
> January afternoons and think of snow as a special occasion. These people are
> saying those twice a year snowfalls are proof that nothing is changing,
> while knowing full well that they were wearing layers of coats and scarves
> years ago and walking around in t-shirts now.

As someone who believes in climate change, and grew up playing in the snow -
what on earth are you talking about? Where is this magical place where it used
to be snowy all winter long and is now averaging 50-60 degrees with snow now
being a rare occasion?

Exaggerating to the extent you are does nothing but hurt the message because
it's blatantly and obviously false and when climate deniers read people making
claims like you are, the entire discussion loses all credibility.

~~~
Spooky23
My expectation based on my childhood (I'm in my 40s) is that you would have at
least some snowcover from early December through late March. Some winters were
snowier than others, but you'd always find a hunk of ice somewhere. There was
always 3-5 significant storms with more than 12" of snow. Now we get 1-2, and
they typically melt within a week. In any case, the ground would be frozen
solid.

I live about 150 miles north of NYC. Last weekend, I planted tulips that I
forgot about in the fall, wearing shorts. The weather that we have here today
is warmer than the ocean climate around NYC and Long Island was in the 80s
when I was a little kid.

~~~
scruple
I spoke with my mother and father about this topic recently. It was triggered
by reading US Grant's autobiography. Grant recollected early on that during
his youth they would often ice skate on the ponds and lakes in southern Ohio.
I grew up not far from Grant. On occasion, from ~85-92, the ponds would freeze
with ice thick enough to skate. By the mid-90s, that was simply done. I
remember sledding all of the time during the winter during that same period.
I'll ask a friend who still lives next to the hill we used to sled on how
often his own children sled. My parents are still there, so I know it's not
often -- Not even every winter is there enough snow stuck on the ground to go
sledding. The last blizzard that I recall living through was in the early 90s,
as well. I left the area in 2001, but returned in 2006-2008. During 2006-2008,
there were a few snows that I recall that were ~6"-8" but it was all melted
inside of a week. My father was telling me recently that they're lucky to see
3" today and it doesn't stick for more than a few days.

My parents grew up in southwestern PA. My mother grew up on a large farm
(dairy and ~500 acres of planted crops) and often recollects about the 50s and
60s. They would often travel on the ag run-off canals and smaller creeks,
streams, and rivers, to trade supplies with neighbors. They could travel miles
on the ice. They didn't have roads in this section of PA until the late 60s
and early 70s, when the coal company came in (and state routes were built to
support their industry). They would butcher cattle during the winter and could
store it in the back of the barn, in a small stone cellar that was only
partially below ground. The meat would freeze overnight and remain frozen into
the spring.

These things are gone today and it's happened before my own eyes inside of 2
generations of my own family, at that.

------
tbassetto
We have almost no snow around Oslo at the moment, which is quite rare. There
are talks about canceling some upcoming ski competitions because it doesn't
make sense to use snow canon when temperatures are positive (ºC).

Meanwhile, a company just opened a small ski resort indoors (a bit like in
Dubai) 10~15 minutes by car from the city center:
[https://snooslo.no](https://snooslo.no). The goal is to have it open and at
-4ºC all year long. This is so backwards :(

~~~
whb07
Just wait till the world gets tired of hydro carbons and the “rich” middle
eastern countries can go back to being poor like everyone else.

They aren’t hedging their bets by learning how to work and create things. This
will come back to bite them.

But in the mean time, let’s keep snow skiing in the mall with all this foreign
money.

~~~
jakub_g
Dubai has been investing heavily in tourism and business (0% tax, and being
pretty liberal for a islamic country) for years.

~~~
Terretta
> _being pretty liberal for an islamic country_

For some unpredictable value of “pretty liberal” perhaps?

For instance, sex out of wedlock or cohabitation are illegal, including for
tourists.

 _”If you holiday in the emirate unmarried and you come to the attention of
the authorities ... if it’s then discovered you’re sharing a room and a bed
you can be jailed and then deported.”_

~~~
ceejayoz
"Pretty liberal for an Islamic country" is not the same as "liberal by Western
standards".

~~~
GordonS
I think the issue in Dubai is more about the _inconsistency_ of enforcing
their laws.

They look the other way almost all the time - until they don't.

------
cbm-vic-20
$100+ lift tickets are killing alpine skiiing. While in college in southern
New England, we'd pile a few dudes in a car, drive up to Vermont/NH/Maine at
5am, get there when the lifts open, ski until they close, and drive back home.

Lift ticket prices have become crazy expensive, and every ski area wants to
become a resort destination: the messaging here is that you have to be wealthy
to be able to ski.

As a result, a lot fewer young people are going to take up skiing- fewer
people getting into the pipeline.

~~~
cmrdporcupine
What's happened is consolidation with Vail and Alterra buying up many of the
most popular areas -- and with it affordable mega-passes (Ikon, Epic) have
made it possible to ski at very expensive places for a very low per-day cost
-- but only if you are dedicated and can ski more than 10-15 days a year.

And the flip side of that is that per-day lift ticket prices are very high, to
milk the casual skier and the luxury-seeking 1%ers who can afford to spent
$250 (lift ticket+ rentals+snacks) on a single day at Stowe or Vail or
Whistler.

At this point you basically have to either buy one of the mega passes, or seek
out the smaller family owned resorts that still charge reasonable prices.

Look into the Indy Pass, it's an affordable pass that gets you 2 days at a
bunch independent smaller ski areas.

~~~
moneywoes
Yep, since I moved to BC I was excited at all of the skiing options but it's
just too pricey. Even the local resorts e.g. Cypress.

~~~
parliament32
What? Cypress is like $300 for a season pass and it's easily the best local
hill. If you want to go to a worse hill, $99 3SKI at Seymour gets you 3 days
of lift + 3 days of rentals (anytime in the same season).

If you consider that expensive you moved to the wrong neighbourhood.

~~~
moneywoes
Where can I get $300 for a season pass at Cypress? My friend paid like $500.
Graduating soon so I could definitely manage that.

------
rakoo
> “If greenhouse-gas emissions continue at the same level, snow will almost
> disappear at lower levels by the end of the century,”

A common misconception is that if we reduced our emissions, things would get
better. The reality is that a particle of CO2 that is emitted today will
statistically be there for 10,000 years before disappearing. Once out there
it's going to work against us for this whole period. If we reduced our
emissions, things won't get better, they will get a little bit less
catastrophic and we will have a little bit more time. What we have emitted so
far is in the air and it's too late.

Source ([http://hapen.fr/jancovici-pib-ou-co2-il-faut-choisir-
science...](http://hapen.fr/jancovici-pib-ou-co2-il-faut-choisir-sciences-
po-20190829_fichiers/image049.jpg)):

\- after 100 years, 40% is still there

\- after 1000 years, 20% is still there

\- after 10,000 years, 10% is still there

~~~
lucideer
> _A common misconception_

Is this really common?

I'm aware there's climate change denial, but amongst those not wilfully
ignorant, I would've presumed the fact that we're now working to _slow the
rate of change_ is a well-accepted best-case.

~~~
rakoo
I'm obviously using anecdotal evidence, but most of the time I see the issue
discussed the people who do believe in climate change don't understand the
scale of the thing, don't think the situation is _that_ bad and believe that
we will just find a technological way (which, at this point, is more magical
than anything) to reduce emissions without impacting our overall comfort and
way of life, and without massive climate catastrophes and humanitarian crises

This assumes that even if we stopped all emissions today, things will be fine.
Like there's some sort of Pause button. Things won't be fine: if we stopped
everything today, we'd reach the +2°C at the end of the century. Things are
going to get worse even if we stop emitting.

------
rob74
From the perspective of someone who has been in Garmisch two weeks ago: it's
not as bad as the article makes it sound. Garmisch is at an altitude of 700 m
(2300 ft), but most of the ski area is much higher (in the snow-covered
mountains that can be seen in the background of the first photo). Being able
to ski all the way down to the ski resort is a luxury, not a necessity, and
only those slopes need snow cannons. Plus, there is also the ski area near the
Zugspitze, which starts at 2000 m height. I'm not a climate change denier, far
from it, but it will take some more decades until skiing in the Alps will die
out completely...

------
h43z
On the other hand Ski Touring is on the rise at least for now. Due to the high
prices of ski resort tickets and bad snow conditions many (like myself)
started to pick it up. It's the healthier and environmentally friendly version
of alpine skiing. As many lower altitude resorts are turning off their cable
cars the slopes are invaded by beginner and fitness oriented ski tourers. They
are perfect for those because there is no danger of avalanches and no mountain
experience is required and they are satisfied with less snow than alpine
skiers. Some ghost ski resorts have started to have high parking ticket prices
now to at least get some revenue out of it.

~~~
0x70dd
I wouldn't call it healthier due to the risk of avalanches and in my
experience it's not negligible. It requires some complex skills of being able
to both judge the terrain and act fast if something happens. And even then,
accidents happen. How many people die annually on the slopes of ski resorts
and how many die in avalanches while skiing?

~~~
potta_coffee
Avalanche training and equipment is necessary. The skills aren't really that
complex, there are a few rules to follow that will save your life. I can't
prove it but I believe most of the avalanche deaths are people with zero
training who don't take the situation seriously. You can learn all the
necessary skills in a single afternoon.

~~~
bradstewart
You can learn the (basic) skills in an afternoon, but being able to use those
skills calmly, quickly, and safely in an emergency situation is a whole
'nother ball game. That requires practice, practice, and more practice (at
least for me).

------
fxj
It is not that easy, as you can see from the yearly snow height of 2 locations
in the alps:

[https://www.eike-klima-
energie.eu/2016/02/18/schneemessreihe...](https://www.eike-klima-
energie.eu/2016/02/18/schneemessreihen-aus-lech-und-zuers/)

There is no clear trend visible. The reason for this is that during the
climate catastrophe not only the temperature rises but also the mass of the
evaporated water rises. This results in more extreme cases where there is no
snow at all or drowning in snow. This year there is no snow but last year
there were some villages in the alps that were no longer reachable because of
the amasses of snow.

------
Reedx
Allow me to offer an optimistic view.

There are solutions in progress - nuclear tech, carbon capture, etc - and
we'll come up with technology we can't yet predict. We're getting better at
making things more efficient. Countries have fewer kids and care more about
the environment as they get richer, they tend to clean the rivers and air.
Trends have been positive the past few decades as poverty has decreased
substantially and continues to.

Humans are good at solving slow moving disasters, even when they're of global
scope. Remember the ozone hole scare, which was solved beyond expectation. The
year 2000 problem, solved beyond expectation. It was long thought we were
about to run out of oil and food, solved beyond expectation (indeed creating
opposite problems).

We tend to solve these. Climate change may well end up being one of these
things that freaked us out for a while, but we figured it out. Then we'll move
onto the next slow moving disaster and solve that too.

~~~
paulddraper
Add overpopulation to that list as well.

It was huge concern in the 1970s and 1980s. Now population growth is expected
to be flat by the end of the 21st century.

It's fallen so much that that it's creating problems in some areas.

------
aequitas
> To make up for a lack of natural snowfall, resorts switch on the cannons,
> although they’re energy intensive

And thus only adding to the climate change problem.

Everyone is or will suffer from climate change, but if even the ones currently
suffering don't want to make the changes needed to divert the problem how do
we expect people that don't feel the pain yet to change?

And no, things like driving a low milage or electric car is not a change that
solves the problem, not driver, or driving less is.

That's why I'm pessimistic this problem will ever get solved in time. Since in
order to really solve it (compared to avoiding it for a few generations more)
we collectively need to agree that we can't keep on living this way and with
so many any longer. Which is just not in our (ironically) evolutionary
biological nature as a competitive species.

~~~
SmellyGeekBoy
Why assume they're using non-renewable energy? These resorts are in
mountainous regions where hydro, wind etc are all very viable options.

~~~
mlang23
Most of them dont care where the energy comes from. All they care is to keep
the stream of tourists. I know, I live in a skiing country which is about to
face the end of this era. Nobody from the tourism industry is willing to
accept the facts, all they do is pretend it can be handled with artificial
snow.

~~~
NickBusey
"Most of them", you've done a global survey then, have you? Ski resorts here
in Colorado very much care and advertise about their renewable energy usage.

~~~
ng12
Colorado is bottom 10 when it comes to renewable energy production though.

------
mlang23
In Austria, where skiing is a big thing for certain areas regarding tourism
income, we already compensate with artificial snow since many years. I
personally find this extremely crazy. Producing aritificla snow is extensive
and likely quite bad for the environment. But since tourism is the holy cow,
these projects even get funded with public money. I oppose this, but nobody
asks mtheindividual if this way of spending public money is wanted. All that
seems relevant is to preserve the flow of tourists during winter time.
Frankly, this is nuts. If there is not enough snow for skiing, well, then
there isn't...

------
tezza
Looking at the charts in: VAL D'ISÈRE SNOW HISTORY [1]

I don't get the impression of reduction in snowfall nor snow depth.

2010 and 2011 look bad comparatively.. but recent years look variable-yet-
stable.

======================

[https://www.onthesnow.co.uk/northern-alps/val-
disere/histori...](https://www.onthesnow.co.uk/northern-alps/val-
disere/historical-snowfall.html?y=0)

------
doggydogs94
And to address climate change, Germany is retiring all nuclear power plant and
replacing them with CO2 emitting natural gas plants.

~~~
fxj
fake news:

Germany is switching off the coal plants and replacing them with natural gas
which releases only 50% CO2 than coal.

The nuclear plants will be switched off without replacement at all. The over
all energy budget will be reduced due to better energy efficiency.

See also the thread from today:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22062968](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22062968)

Germany looks to step up coal exit timetable (afp.com)

~~~
ars
How is that fake news? You literally just confirmed what he said: Germany is
shutting off nuclear plants and replacing them with natural gas.

~~~
fxj
No I didnt. That is so tricky about fake news. Giving it another spin by
leaving out parts.

~~~
ng12
His post didn't even mention coal. I'm confused.

~~~
ars
Coal will be shut off "later", the nuclear plants are shut down now, and the
idea to reduce the overall energy budget to make up the shortfall hasn't
happened either.

So, yah, basically Germany shut down nuclear plants and replaced them with
natural gas.

Good job Germany.

------
GuB-42
It makes me remember, I went skiing in the French Alps last winter, and the
snow conditions should have been terrible (sunny, warm, no snowfall for more
than a month), but weren't.

Using snow cannons and by moving snow around, they managed to keep most of the
resort open. Obviously, it wasn't perfect, and off-piste was out of the
question, but it was good enough to be enjoyable.

So while climate change will certainly affect alpine skiing negatively, but
resorts made a lot of progress dealing with less than ideal conditions.

~~~
jnwatson
Here on the US East coast, we already have several marginal resorts that
almost always use snow machines. However, the air temp still needs to be cold
enough to support it.

------
claudeganon
I never thought I would see it, but that’s what has also happened here in
Michigan. The smaller ski areas closed down a few years ago and now even some
of the larger resorts, that cater to the more affluent, are struggling to stay
open. The winter’s here now seem so strange and disquieting from what I
experienced as a child.

~~~
cmrdporcupine
It isn't just climate change. Skiing has become less popular. Places are
closing down because of a demographic change. New ski areas not being built,
existing ones closing down. Mostly, anyways. There's a bit of an exception to
that in B.C.

Cheap flights also mean that people don't bother with their local ski areas in
the midwest -- they fly west for luxury vacations instead.

It does seem though that skiing might be having a fairly recent resurgence.

~~~
bamboozled
No, it’s climate change.

If it’s anything to do with popularity, it’s skiing becoming less popular due
to worse conditions.

Japan used to be beautiful fluffy powder snow for 4 months straight.

Now it’s icy moguls with the occasional powder day and a sad 1.5 meter base in
January.

No one can believe it but climate change is destroying snow country.

~~~
claudeganon
Agreed. My stepfather used to work at one of these ski areas and the sporadic
opening and closures, before the snow just disappeared altogether, drove away
business.

~~~
bamboozled
This is why people are travelling more to ski (ironically, making the snow
worse). It’s insurance for your holiday. Now people aren’t looking for just
nice snow, we’re hunting higher elevations as we know it’s colder.

I actually probably wouldn’t bother with a < 1400m Ski resort anywhere in the
Northern Hemisphere this year.

------
jacknews
Now it's getting serious!

Where will financeers spend their winter breaks?

~~~
michaelcampbell
More yachting.

------
emodendroket
This seems a little like saying a disastrous hurricane spoiled your golf
outing.

~~~
roter
Whatever moves the needle. Some are moved by the science, some by the
inconvenience, and some by catastrophe.

Though, if or when golf starts getting hit by climate change, that will
_really_ move the needle.

------
jojoo
Living next to a low elevation resort this makes me quite sad.

Climate Change will also impact other snow sports:

The future of backcountry skiing (at least in the alps) will be to drive up a
mountain pass, get on a E-Mountainbike, drive up ~300m of elevation and then
begin skinning.

Nordic skiing (where you need road access and a lot of flat-ish surface) will
only be possible in a few quite elevated valleys without much sun.

------
thresh
So they'll just convert the lower altitude resorts to more "summer" activities
like hiking and mountain biking.

~~~
cardamomo
Of course people will adapt, but there is also a cultural loss here.

~~~
easytiger
There is also an arrogance that the past 120 years represents how geological
earth should have remained forever.

~~~
gbrown
Forever? Nah, but I’d prefer if things changed at the usual pace - slow enough
for species to adapt and evolve without catastrophic extinctions.

~~~
easytiger
I don't think having to find a new ski resort is catastrophic. People have
only been going to ski resorts for 100 years

~~~
coldtea
> _I don 't think having to find a new ski resort is catastrophic._

As if the worst thing is the loss of ski resorts?

How about going finding a new place to live, cultivate, and the huge
casualties in human life, animals, etc?

~~~
easytiger
Ironically skiresorts aren't a haven of biodiversity

------
ourlordcaffeine
Good thing I got into downhill longboarding. I think it might well be better
for the environment too, I can get my adrenaline fix by taking a bus to the
hills outside the city rather than having to fly to the alps.

For those who want to snowboard when there is no snow, a "freeboard" is
probably the closest emulation on tarmac.

~~~
mring33621
I agree that there are non-snow replacements. For me, they are Esk8, EUC &
Onewheel, as I wrote in another comment.

------
catoc
Arrived in the Sierra Nevada right this moment - to ski.... to find a single
patch off fake snow amidst green pastures

~~~
JamalW
Guess you’ll have to head over to Vegas now instead ;(

------
heymijo
Off-topic but Bloomberg.com related...

How is the video element on this page so persistent?

Using the latest Firefox, I have uBlock origin on with Javascript, pop-ups,
and large media elements all disabled for this site.

And yet, the small video player starts and follows me as I scroll the page and
when I scroll back to the top, the large video player restarts.

------
avip
But it will only happen at the end of the century. Which, according to even
conservative projections, will be way too late.

I am taking the POV that we need to pray for the appearance of immediate,
severe-yet-not-deadly impacts on our day-to-day lives.

Things like an acute year-round coffee shortage, or no bananas. Or beef price
rockets to 100$/kg, frequent grid downtimes like we had when we grew up.

Let's face it, our morning coffee will motivate us to action better than some
civil war in Syria or dying Koalas.

~~~
multiplegeorges
The largest fires Australia's ever seen are close.

Put those fires in the US and the national conversation will certainly
shift...

~~~
yters
Weren't those fires the result of arson?

~~~
jacoblambda
The majority were either natural starts (lightning) or accidental
(unsupervised campfires and I think one was due to a tossed lit cigarette)
however after the fires had been burning for a while there were a few cases of
arson because some people just like to see the world burn.

Regardless of which fires were started by what cause however, the fires burn
extremely hot and spread fast as a result of conditions caused by climate
change. This turns something as simple as a tossed cigarette into a meaningful
fire hazard and turns a normal fire into one that spreads aggressively enough
to render it nearly impossible to stop with a large amount of manpower. That
makes them actually impossible when they are burning all over the country and
the mostly unpaid volunteer fire fighting force is spread thin dealing with
them.

That's the thing I've taken away from all of this, climate change doesn't
necessarily increase the number of incidents to unreasonable levels (the rate
goes up but not to apocalyptic levels), instead it takes otherwise minor or
normal incidents and sets the conditions to allow them to escalate in
increasing severity.

~~~
yters
How do we know we can attribute the fires to climate change?

It seems like every natural disaster gets attributed to climate change, since
'climate change is happening', and, in turn, all these natural disasters are
given as evidence that 'climate change is happening'.

Seems very circular logic.

~~~
throwaheyy
Hotter weather dries out vegetation making fires worse. That overall hotter
weather is the result of climate change. It's not circular, nor is it that
hard to understand.

------
RandyRanderson
This:
[https://www.skidxb.com/?utm_source=gmb&utm_medium=organic&ut...](https://www.skidxb.com/?utm_source=gmb&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=gmb)

Note that I'm not taking a stance either way - I'm just saying one day we'll
find a man-made ski "slope" (that takes an enormous amount of energy to
maintain) in a place where there used to be actual snow. One has to see the
humour in it. God I miss Douglas Adams.

------
k1l0b1t
I usualy go to the swiss alps in the summer, and even then you notice each
year there is less and less ice on the glaciers.

------
ezoe
Japan is suffering too. Except for Hokkaido and very high altitude ski areas,
we don't have much snow.

------
gwbas1c
(Disclaimer: Didn't read the article because of the paywall)

In the New England, (Northeastern states in the US,) climate change hit the
ski slopes years ago. Those that invested in snowmaking stayed open and
continue to do great business, those that waited for natural snow went out of
business rather quickly.

Lesson: If you run a ski slope, once you have 2-3 years of bad snow, it's too
late. Invest in snow making early.

~~~
ghaff
I don't disagree but it also seems as if there's also been an ongoing shift
over the past decades away from local hills with minimal
facilities/snowmaking/rope tows towards big mountains with high speed
chairs/gondolas/lots of snowmaking.

Some of that may be that the local hills have gotten incrementally worse
because of reduced snow (or at least more bad snow years). But it also feels
as if downhill skiing has become more of a destination activity. (And many of
the big areas have also invested heavily in real estate.)

~~~
gwbas1c
At least where I've lived, it doesn't make sense to go to a local hill when a
real mountain is just a few minutes extra.

The local hills were cheap for the sake of being cheap, and probably don't
make as much sense in today's world where insurance is a huge unrecognized
cost of skiing.

~~~
ghaff
It does depend where you live and what constitutes a real mountain. In eastern
Massachusetts for example, the sizable northern New England peaks are all 3+
hours away. The areas that range from a smaller mountain like Wachusett to big
hills like Nashoba Valley are much closer for most. That said, there aren't
many of the even smaller areas left and as far as I know, the rope tow on
what's something of a stretch to even call a hill places are pretty much gone
entirely.

~~~
gwbas1c
Wachusett: Real mountain skiing, minutes away!

If you've been to Tahoe, a lot of the places there aren't much bigger.

------
mring33621
Climate change may reduce alpine skiing 'supply', but I also think that
'demand' may also be shrinking.

 _My_ main reason for not caring about alpine skiing, anymore, is the advent
of Personal Electric Vehicles (PEVs). An electric unicycle (EUC) can feel a
lot like skiing, especially on a mild, grassy hill. An electric skateboard
(Esk8) and a Onewheel both, to a reasonable degree, simulate riding a
snowboard. I don't have to travel for these thrills. I don't need a lift
ticket. I don't need to freeze my feet in hard plastic boots. These devices
are not cheap, but neither is skiing.

I expect that there are others that feel similarly -- that the fun of electric
rideables have adequately replaced the thrill of alpine snow sports.

------
frank2
The slopes I skied on in the 1970s and 1980s were copiously covered in grass
during the summer.

------
coldtea
Alpine Skiing? Of all the things Climate Change will affect, that's the last
thing we'll miss.

I mean, we're talking of millions (billions potentially in the future) people
out of their homes, horrible droughts, famines, fires, weather phenomena,
animals extinct, etc, so skiing is the last thing to concern with...

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matsemann
Don't be flippant. As someone growing up in the mountains, the ski resort is
the one thing keeping the wheels turning. Loosing it will actually quite
literally mean forcing us out of our homes.

~~~
coldtea
> _As someone growing up in the mountains, the ski resort is the one thing
> keeping the wheels turning. Loosing it will actually quite literally mean
> forcing us out of our homes._

Of course there would be negative consequences for mountain villages and such.
But ski tourist industry decline is not the biggest tragedy. These people are
indeed forced to leave their Alps village but they can still go get some job
in the city in a first world country. That's versus millions of third world
immigrants or dying kids in Africa/Asia due to droughts/climate change
developments for example...

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Starkus
Go with the flow, planet has been warming and deicing for a very long time,
such is a cycle.

Plant some trees, develop CO2 capture, etc.

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rayvd
Oh, jeez. No it's not. Skiing is doing just fine.

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blackflame
Id say the $125+ for a day pass at most resorts is killing it as well. Maybe
donate some of those profits

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growlist
Ironically climate change might help improve the Alpine environment in some
ways. Skiing has a massive negative impact - whole slopes stripped of
vegetation for example, with all the problems that brings.

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Bubbadoo
Boy, you live long enough and you hear it all. Talk about the least scientific
evidence and undermining true climate change discourse. Look, the last year I
lived in metro-NY (2017-2018), it started snowing around Thanksgiving and the
storms just kept rolling in until late-March. Snow was piled almost a high as
I am tall on either side of the driveway. Is that kind of weather getting
rare? Maybe in some regions, but I'm not seeing it.

Last year, the Rockies had the best snow year in 25 years. Some mountain
resorts had skiing into late-May, early June. So far this year, it has been a
very snowy early season.

I have no doubt the oceans are warming and temps are rising, but using the
'remember-when' gauge of scientific deduction is no way to judge our climate.
As a very smart man once said: "...remember when is the lowest form of
conversation."

