Snow Melts, Industry Feels Heat
Making snow is an expensive way to beat global warming. (Mammoth Mountain)
"If it's above 30 and the humidity's high, they can't make snow," said Bill Farrell. He’s talking about Enfield, New Hampshire’s ski areas, known as the Upper Valley. Now 57, Farrell has skied the area's slopes since he was four. He and his wife virtually raised their children on the slopes, and they now teach skiing in Colorado.
In January 2007, while his son and daughter enjoyed plentiful snow out West, Farrell said that New Hampshire's Upper Valley was hurting. "They can't make the snow. On January 6, it was 68 degrees," said Farrell. "A pond that you can usually drive a plow on is open water."
Once a national NASTAR (National Standard Race) pace setter, Farrell has skied enough mountains over the past half century to see the trends. In order to stay in the ski business, he says, resorts are going to have to invest in snowmaking equipment—and those costs add up. On top of the tens of thousands of dollars needed for the machinery, there's the staff needed to run the snow guns, the energy required to power them, and the natural resources like water—and weather—to make them work.
During much of the 2006-2007 season, some New England slopes, like Tenney Mountain in Plymouth, New Hampshire, stayed closed. Other mountains that opened offered skiers a limited number of trails. In short, winter recreation areas are having to cope with warmer winters, like them or not. Resorts that can't cope will likely close.
A troubling trend
Penny Sirjane, who runs World Cup Supply, a company that deals in products for on-hill events and safety equipment, said that while snow-making technology is improving, "weather patterns of recent years have created challenges in the industry."
Sirjane is concerned, but her business is flexible—she sells nationwide and even internationally, so she can go where there’s snow. Mountain resorts don’t have that option.
The 2006-2007 season was troubling for many hills in the Northeast, but the previous winter, some West Coast mountains struggled.
Lisa Isaacs, Environmental Director of California's Mammoth Mountain, said 2005-2006 was "the warmest winter we've had since installing snowmaking." Mammoth opened on time last season, but conditions were not ideal. "We got some storms and were able to make a little bit of snow," explained Isaacs. "We were one of the only ones open for those who wanted to ski."
With a base at 9,000 feet, Mammoth's high elevation gives it an edge. A recent study from the University of Zurich projects tough times for low-altitude ski areas. Some lower-lying resorts in Switzerland are already experiencing unreliable snowfall. (Bürki)
Communities depend on winter business
As average global temperatures rise, America's $4.5 billion ski industry is taking notice. (NSAA) "If we don't have snow, our whole economy is dead," said Isaacs about the resort town of Mammoth Lakes, adding, "Everybody is hurt."
Colorado is especially concerned with the problems a warming climate poses. "Colorado, like most of the West, has gone from an extraction economy to an attraction economy," said Auden Schendler of Aspen Skiing Company. The state's outdoor recreation, from skiing to river rafting, all depends on climate. And for winter recreation businesses, snow cover is key.
Between 1950 and 1997, springtime mountain snow cover in the Rockies was down 16 percent, the Cascades lost an average of 29 percent, and many sites in Washington, Oregon and Northern California saw springtime snow down more than 50 percent. (Mote)
Making snow is costly
"Most resorts see snowmaking as one way to deal with climate change," said Schendler.
But it's not quite that easy. "The problem is," said Mammoth's Isaacs, "that if you're not cold enough, you can't make snow."
Man-made snow is made by simulating the same conditions needed for natural snow. While the surrounding temperatures don't have to be freezing (depending on humidity), they have to be close. And the warmer it is, the more expensive it is to make snow.
"Warming isn't just warming—it's increased cost," explained Schendler. "If you're making snow around freezing, it's not an optimal economic proposition. Optimal is around 20 degrees." And even in the best of conditions, producing the manmade white stuff can account for 20 percent of operating costs.
Resorts lead on cutting heat-trapping emissions
Although resorts contribute less to climate change than other industries (such as transportation and manufacturing), slopes around the country are taking steps to cut emissions and boost efficiencies. Aspen Skiing Company is at the forefront. In addition to harnessing wind to run parts of its hill, it's generating about 200,000 kilowatt hours of renewable power by pumping spring runoff through snowmaking pipes.
Initiatives at other resorts include solar-powered lighting in the Canyons in Utah and wind power for parts of New York's Hunter Mountain's operations. Mammoth's efficiency measures include lighting with compact fluorescent bulbs, supplemental solar heat panels in lift stations and free biodiesel shuttle buses to and from the resort.
These reductions in global warming pollution benefit not only the ski industry, but all of us. Mammoth's energy guru Bob Bradbury summed up the resort's efficiencies like this: "Every little bit helps. You make 100 improvements here and there, and it adds up to a lot of savings in money and energy."
Innovations at winter sports resorts have symbolic power, too: "The ski industry is very powerful and visible," said Auden, "and we can help drive change because of the importance of our business in these western communities."
What You Can Do
Small changes to your daily routine can add up to big differences in helping to stop global warming.
Sources
Bloomfield, Janine; Hamburg, Steven. Seasons of Change: Global Warming and New England's White Mountains. Environmental Defense. 1997. 20.
Bürki, Rolf ; Elsasser, Hans; Abegg Bruno. "Climate Change and Winter Sports: Environmental and Economic Threats." International Olympic Committee/United Nations Environmental Programme (IOC/UNEP). earthwatch.unep.net/atmosphere/index.php. 2-3 December 2003.
Chameides, Bill; Wang, James. "Global Warming's Increasingly Visible Impacts." Environmental Defense. 2005. 13.
Mote, P.W., A.F. Hamlet, M.P. Clark, and D.P. Lettenmaier. 2005. Declining mountain snowpack in western North America. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, January, 39–49.
National Ski Area Association (NSAA).
Image: Mammoth Mountain