Winter Sports: How Climate Change Is Affecting Ski Resorts
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- čas přidán 14. 05. 2024
- The Alps have always been a safe bet for skiers-until now. As a consequence of climate change, there is less snow, and slopes are remaining bare. A disaster for ski resorts, whose economy depends on winter sports. How are they dealing with this, and what are their future plans? Lukas Stege looks for answers in Germany and Austria.
00:00 Intro
01:11 Zugspitze, Germany
06:30 KIT Campus Alpin, Garmisch-Partenkirchen
08:41 Garmisch Classic ski resort
10:50 Dachstein Mountains, Austria
CREDITS:
Report: Lukas Stege, Holm Weber
Camera & Editing: Holm Weber
Executive producer: Christina Deicke
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#skiing #germany #austria #wintersports #alps #climatechange
![[Vowel]물고기는 물에서 살아야 해🐟🤣Fish have to live in the water #funny](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/3G9MH063Cx4/mqdefault.jpg)
I’m a ski instructor in Engelberg, Switzerland. There it rains in January up to 2000 meters above sea level. 20 years ago, we always had snow at around 1000 meters. Now it’s green in the village at 1100 meters and 10 degrees with sunshine. It was the same last year.
Sad
Same here in Whistler, Canada. It was raining at the peak last Saturday. Shocking!
@@cairuiboIs it really shocking though?
@@cairuibo El Niño winter...... Watch out next winter. La Niña. If what they say about the fluctuations is correct, next winter is gona be intense!
It is the same for Aspen where the X Games are held. The pine trees are planted in old ending-avalanche-zones the snow used to be 60cm deep at around 450m below the resort and 4m+ deep on the set off the knuckle huck area. Nowadays that deep snow and white mountain tops are green or grey.
When I lived in Innsbruck, locals told me that in their youth 40-60 years ago there was sometimes so much snow that it was possible to ski from the mountains all the way to town. Innsbruck is approximately 574 meters above the sea level.
I was born in the Anden at 3000 meters above the sea level, funny how tourist were always battling to catch a breath 🫁
Seefeld in Tyrol ( 1250m above sea level ) has had its worst ski season in history and has suffered badly . Kuhtai is just about hanging on to snow this year ....BUT this is an el ninio year which means naturally its 4c warmer ..hopefully for everyone next year will be better .
It is indeed true that this year is an El Niño year, so let's hope that we will have more snow in the coming winters. About ten years ago, I spent the winter in Geneva and used to do a lot of cross-country skiing at the La Vattay Nordic Ski Centre (1260 metres above sea level). I remember being devastated when they closed the centre on 1 April although there was still over 4m of snow. "La saison est finie!" I was told. Now, looking at the webcam, La Vattay is not open at all because there is no snow. If it hasn't snowed by mid-February, it's highly unlikely they'll be able to open at all this winter.
There is warm periods and cold periods on earth's climate. After all we are getting closer to the sun each day, that unleashes imaginable amounts of heat and growing.
When I was a kid, my granddad told me how warm it was in our area when he was a kid. It snowed a lot when I was a kid but now it does not. Its called cycles.
The weather has changed so much in the last 20-30 years. I remember 25 years ago, in Belgrade, we would have snow from November all the time until late March. Now theres maybe 7 days with snow, and it usually melts very fast. So sad
Climate change doesn’t stop no matter what we do though eventually the ski hills won’t be as good all we are doing is speeding it up and even getting rid of most gas cars we are still speeding it up.
Is the temperature will go higher too in Africa or remain the same? Because if goes up it Will be insane
@@MNN1118 not nessarly that is why it is now called climate change instead of global warming it might get colder
People that study the weather of the past say that 2000 years ago, it never snowed there. Then the earth went through a cold period, and you got snow until now.
@@roberthicks5454 I suppose but thousands of years before that it did, the weather is ever changing
The lower altitude resorts are all doomed to close and nothing will happen in time to save them. Skiing will then just get even more expensive and exclusive at the resorts that survive.
I live at Nice in France 1h far from the south of the French Alps. 15 years ago I could ski until the end of March-and April. Now just February and the snow has disapear. It main only on the sky line beacause of the snowmachine. 20 years ago, there was 1 bad year (hot) among 4-5 years. Now it's only 1 good year among 4-5 bad years.
The weather has been warmer with fewer snowfalls for the past 8-9 years here in the Southern Alps.
Back in 2007 we had accumulative snow depths of 6-7metres at 'Isola 2000'.
Now we are very lucky to get a metre, at the top!
'Greolieres Les Neiges', now has only has man made snow, at the bottom nursery slopes.
Back in 2015 we could ski/snowboard 'off piste', at Greolieres. I think my last visit there was 2016 maybe?.
Since then there has been little or no snow on the pistes.
Auron and Isola can make snow, if cold enough (which was possible last year)
But last year the drought and drought restrictions started in March or April and ended in October November (from memory)
The S France climate is getting dryer and warmer rapidly.
I predict another drought likely this year.
I see Skiing ending in the Southern French Alps within the next 20 years 😒
These maybe '1st world problems', but indicative of climate change and bigger, more serious problems to come!
I really hope we can turn things around. I can't imagine a world without snowboarding!
It's just a natural cycle of the earth. Nothing human's can do anything about. Just wait 30 years and we're having extremely cold winters again.
The irony being that snowsports is an incredibly environmentally unfriendly business.
@@andygolborne5747 it depends what and where you do snowsports.
@@andygolborne5747Is it ? But snowsport has also brought jobs and prosperity to areas that would be otherwise poor and lacking in infrastructure. Overall snowsport has done far more good than bad
@@amblincorkHow is bringing jobs and prosperity relevant for being environment friendly? And how will this prosperity help the people with those jobs in ten years, when even their summer jobs as farmers will become hard to practice?
Skiing can be environment friendly, resort skiing is not it though.
The fact that I started skiing late in my life makes me cry. I've missed so much. Here on the Balkans the change is much faster and more drastic. Today we broke all time records with 24 degrees C. Last year resorts opened in the end of January. On the other hand, summers are extremely warm, like 40+ degrees sometimes. Storms, floods, fires, draught, this is what we have more and more often.
I just came back from Bansko (Bulgaria) last week and the conditions were absolutelly amazing but yes, I did speak to some locals there and they confirmed to me there used to be much more snow in the past years there as it is now.
In Montenegro also. There are no slopes open at the moment. It is 13th February... Total disaster, but i hope this is just a faze and the snow will come back. I started snowboarding 3 years ago, fell in love with it and now people are saying the sport is dying? I cannot accept that 😅
@@darkdantepl Bansko is still good for skiing because it's at a high elevation (highest stop of the lift is at 2500m). Most resorts in the Balkans however are at a lower altitude and snow is melting.
@@darkdanteplif you'd been to Bansko years ago you'd know the difference. The ski road would be open throughout the season and on good weeks, you could ski in the town. Now they're suffering to keep the ski road open even with artificial snow. They don't even open the second ski road which is actually nicer at a higher altitude as there are no snow cannons there. Sad.
we used to ski for months at Zaarour-Lebanon, now as an instructor , moved to other mountain areas called Kfardebian which is higher and still hosts alpine and many sports till early April's days😃
I learned snowboarding in the Alps a bit more than 20 years ago. I am not Christian but, I when I was up in the glaciers, I thought, if there was God, the Alps is one of the best gift ever given to us.
This almost made me cry.
🙏🏾
There was /Christians ...
There is God.
it's not that deep bro, stop crying
Here in Ottawa Gatineau, Feb 03 and it's +3 degrees, raining for the last few days and little to no snow so far this year. The river behind my house hasn't frozen fully for the past two years...only 10 years ago and we'd have 2 feet of snow and get 2 months of solid freeze in January/Febuary, always 1-2 weeks at the end of January with -40C. This is EXTREMELY disturbing to me and I know it will only continue to get worse every year. Never thought the effects would be so severe and so quick. Just imagine what things will be like in another 10-20 years.
This is my first year ever snowboarding! I have been frequenting Camp Fortune, Sommet Edelweiss, and Mont Cascades and it has been extremely icy :/ I was really hoping for some snow but as you said its February now and this is very discouraging as I have bought all the equipment and a pass!
@@xZ1gZagx skiing is done around here, back in the day, we used to ride December, Jan, Feb, March at fortune.... it's sad really..
Just went to ski yesterday for the first time in my Life, since I am from Latinamerica. And they used artificial snow in that place...
@@mcmerry2846 cool, hope you had a nice time!
No canal skating either, right?
Was raining in the Paradiski up to 2200m a couple of weeks ago while i was there. The freezing level has been as high as 3500m in parts of the north western Alps this week. Sadly anything below 2000m in France Italy and Switzerland and below 1700m in Austria needs a big rethink re tourism and survival going forward....
It's even like that in the US. Where I usually go is 1700m and our yearly average was 330 cm a year, which isn't a lot, but the last 10 years it's been getting smaller and smaller. Last year we only had 75cm of snow. I hope this turns around because there are three ski resorts in that area.
When I was a kid back in the 70s we went skiing every Easter holidays locally here in Scotland. We never thought about there being no snow! There was always plenty. Now, I'd say our ski centres will not be able to offer skiing much longer. They are diversifying to mountain biking.
Our climate here has become increasingly stormy with torrential rain. Ok, it was Föhn effect, but January this year in the North West Highlands of Scotland saw a record-breaking temperature of +19.6°c!
storms, very strong winds and loads of rain ... thats what we're getting A LOT in recent years in Northern Ireland too. And to make it worse ... I live on a f... hill :/
DW perfekte Mischung von Nachrichten und der Sendung mit der Maus… 😂
Andorra is also on spring mode this early Feb feels like April already..... most resorts in Spain next to France are also strugglin' even with artificial snow they can't keep up with this weather.
It's pretty sad. We finally got some good snowfall last week in the Aragonese Pyrenees. Hopefully enough to save the season, but it's been the worst year I remember.
@@belbol1547 yes we will have at least another 15+ days of fun 🤷
I am originally from small willage in polish mountains, when I was a Kid temperature were often dropping to -30'c and there was so much snow that sometimes we were buried. Now you can ski only on artificial snow and temp is often above 0 with frequent rain.
Here in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, ski resorts this 2023-2024 season had a late start and then intermittently shutting down due to lack of snow. Snowmaking machines will not work either if the temperature is not cold enough.
2023/24 you mean right?
I spike to some guys from your neck of the woods that where working on the mondiuix in the portes du soleil! They said that snow is really lacking this year foe you guys too?
@@tseekmin Yep, LOL. corrected.
because it’s an el niño year happens every so often
I've seen that Whistler-Blackcomb and Revelstoke were washed out with rain this past week
I am in St Johann in Tirol right now. Today 9 degrees Celcius, snow is melting all day long, there's only artificial on the ski slope. Otherwise it looks here like an end of April would do.
Less snow means less water in rivers in the summer. Just been to Lombardy Alps, hardly any snow below 1700m.
I have only been snowboarding for 24 years. When i started it was almost always possible to ski right down to Chamonix town at 1000 meters. Now it's rarely possible. I feel we wrecked our planet. And yes - I'm equally guilty!
How egotistical of you to actually believe we can change the planet that much. Are you sure it's not the sun? Are you sure it's not a solar storm?
Are you sure 'egotistical' is the correct term? And sure that the last 200 years of man-made emmisions not responsible for the very recent dramatic increase in global temps? @@IsraelistheJewsland
@@IsraelistheJewsland are u sure you should even speak if you have no idea about what are you talking about?
@@IsraelistheJewsland as a species of billions aided by factories...planes..ships...weapons...other machinery that pollutes....we absolutely have the ability to change the course of an ecosystem of a planet...
@@rirukki you are no scientist and you are just parroting some communist socialist nonsense. You really thinknthat billions of dead batteries is the solution? You think we have control? This is just a political push, you should not talk if I should not
Here it's snowing a lot.
Really hoping for spring to come soon.
I've seen Ski resorts using big machines to create artificial snow in the alps in the middle of winter. Made me sad
Sad because they uselessly burn fuel to create snow, thus increasing global warming?
So what ? They make the snow and people continue skiing - life changes and life goes on
They have water retention ponds that they fill up during summer so they use their own water
If they are making snow that means it’s cold enough to snow just no moisture.
It's worse. I was the other day in the Alps skiing, in a glacier at 3000+m. It was 12C.
Previous days the wind was blowing so hard it was entirely closed. This is in the middle of January.
Climate change is not only about the amount of snow.
Yeah, this was the fear here in the US West 10 years ago. Then we started having epic season after epic season.
In the village where I grew up, we used to have a closed snow cover from December to March. There were maybe some winters where it was thin or vanished shortly, but only a few days after, it usually snowed again. Now, it is the opposite: A few days, there is a closed snow cover and otherwise, it's green.
What I also could observe firsthand are the changes to some glaciers, some of which literally collapsed since 2021...
Iv been in the alps for long time i remember in the nighties were completely coverd in snow now u must be happy to have some good days in one season
One personal example from climate changing: last weekend (11.02.2024) we couldn't snowboarding in Sunday because of the heavy rain in Chopok, Slovakia ski area - so we had to switch the ski ticket to Tatralandia aquapark --> so technically we went to the shop and bought swimsuit - it was surreal to change the snowboard pants and jacket to boardshort in the fitting room......I'm snowboarding ~14 years ago and I see less snow from year to year on nearby ski area :( (I mean Chopok & Donovaly from SK, Bukovel-Ukraine and many ski area from Austria) I think we have additional ~10 years maximum and the winter sports will be super expensive:S
I live in the swiss alps. We're having spring here right now.
My local ski area in Colorado had 200% of average last year. This year 2024, we are now at a 100% and climbing and its just mid February.
This really will be the least of our problems in the next 15 years or so!
#middleclassproblems
Exactly. People won't be bothered about skiing when there's little food in the supermarkets.
Which is not a question of if, but when.
my favorite sport will die in my lifetime , fun
I was thinking the same thing...so sad. Now that I'm 54 and I finally was able to learn to ski decently, I have to witness this situation...so sad
It wont. Youre being brainwashed daily
Why is that fun?
It wont, youre all being brainwashed 24/7… this is the 3rd time i had to comment this because they keep deleting my comment. When you have to censor the truth you know were fkd
@@reazyy9667sarcasm obvs
This is very sad. I love winter sports and mountains and have been to many places in Austria, Switzerland and France during the last 30 years. Winters will not be the same without snow. There will, however, be snow in the Nordics, i.e. Finland, Sweden and Norway, where ski season lasts almost six months at the moment. This winter has been very cold in Lapland with temperatures dropping below -40 C. No doubt those countries will become more popular winter destinations, if winters in the Alps become warmer and more resorts have to close. Pistes are not as long as in the Alps, but Lapland has got its own appeal and there are other activities to do like touring and cross country skiing as well. And at least there is snow and it looks like a proper winter.
Im from sweden, been skiing in Åre for 20 years. This season so far has been really good with a lot of fresh snow. Problem with nordics is that we barely have mountains and extreme weather, sometimes more ice than snow in the slopes. Crossing my fingers we can ski fresh pow and not artificial snow in the future
@@th1834 Born in Finland, I worked for two winter seasons in a ski resort in Finnish Lapland in the early 90s. In December and January it was mostly cold and sometimes windy, then the days got longer and warmer. The best months were March and April, and the lifts were open until 1 May. One year, when everyone was heading back to southern Finland, we went to Riksgränsen, which was open until the end of June. Magical days.
Skiing in Geilo, Norway this week. We thought about a change from the Alps. Yes Norway is seen as expensive for Brits but the package holiday was half the cost of similar hotel/spa in France and only fractionally more expensive to eat and drink out, and the locals are so friendly. However, the slopes are much shorter, there are more drag-lifts and T-bars because of wind affecting chairs. The apres scene is limited also, because of low temperatures. A viable alternative definitely, even if it’s sad what we are doing to the planet and this just shifts the problem down the road.
I share the despair of many of the commenters. We are on a ski vacation in Northern Quebec but even here it rained last week turning all the powder to ice. I have been volunteering with Citizen's Climate Lobby, an international organization that promotes policies that reduce carbon emissions. It's one small thing I can do to turn my discouragement into something productive.
I just came from skiing in Sestriere, Italy. They had temperatures of +10C in the last week of January! And first week of February will be warm as well. And the ski resort is located above 2000m.
They already had many slopes closed because of lack of snow, what will be in the future?
I was there too two weeks ago, Monte Motta was with barely any snow... Most of the slopes closed, Sansicario had molten and wet snow, and it even rained!
Foot and a half of snow coming Thursday Friday Saturday .whu hooo
its has been a very bad snow year in the italian alps. will be better next year. japan got hammered wit tonnes of snow this year. i doubt they are making similar videos. @@MrOpenGL
Went to Sauze last year and skied over to Sestriere. Couldn't get to the top of Motta cos of lack of snow. The snow depth in Sauze every year seems to get worse 🙁
@@jaytabac6525stick your head in the sand. It might be better next year. But the general trend will be down. And in 40+ we probably cannot ski in the Alps anymore.
Not the Alps, but a way lower scale, I'm Polish and I grew up very close to Beskidy mountains. We always had full nice snow winter season starting early November till sometimes even April. This is now all past. For the past years, looking at the ski slope operators in Beskidy its clearly visible how challenging it is for them to keep the ski slopes operational. Last year at around this time there was +10C and no snow at all around the slopes, this year its similar, only few out of many ski slopes are open.
This is indeed true for most of Southern Poland. I grew up in Jelenia Gora and most years it was possible to ski most of the mountain in Karpacz or Szklarska Poreba. There were also a few decent small slopes too who were open for weeks during the season, often offering good conditions. Now they have long ceased operation and it often rains in the Karkonosze mountain up to 1000 metres above sea level.
50/60 years ago my Dad used to ski every winter in the Dolomites and according to him it was normal to have green grass around depending on the winter
That doesn't change the fact that the overall trend is clear: less snow on average.
@keeponblading based on what? He said it was "normal", which would mean on average there's already wasn't much snow.
Climate change is real,l and it sucks, but too many people are talking sht and making stuff up to make it sound worse than it is, and then that puts people off from believing it
Yesterday was february 5th. It should be minus 10ish celsius, but yesterday we had 17 degrees celsius, i was walking around in just a sweater. Im from slovenija and as a kid we had atleast a month of snow, but now if we are lucky we get it for a day or two.
And yet some idiots are debating the climat change. It's been fu.ng obviously speeding up in recent years.
I think the average temperature in general isn't rising that much that we are having these issues in the ski resorts in the Alps. A big problem is the high fluctuations in temperature (loads of snow one week, and another week it's 10+ degrees in Austria). This seems to be influenced by how often the Alpes is hit by wind flow and high pressure areas. Basically the warmth coming from Africa and Southern Europe is hitting the Alpes too often which gives big spikes at certain points and is messing up snow conditions. This is at the moments the biggest difference in the climate in the Alpes that we are experiencing which is having a massive influence.
When I was a kid (around 15-20 years ago I always loved skiing in the village where we stayed at ~950m instead of the mountain which was 1500m and a 15 minute drive away. Every year in February or March we were able to ski there, this is the first time in years that I saw they opened up pistes again for a couple of weeks when there was good snow. So unfortunate, wish I could re-live those days more often...
Average temps are not rising??? You got to be kidding
Sea temp in Med is rising too.
In fact, the climate in the Alps is changing because the weather patterns in Europe are changing too. The global warming has affected the gulf stream which becomes weaker and is shifting resulting in changing weather patterns. The temperature rise in the ocean has also changed the energetic flows adding more perturbations in the climate. Everything is linked and we just start to fathom the logic behind. There is one fact we are sure : the implication of the human activities in the global warming is obvious.
My guy...That how averages are worked out :'). More extreme fluctuations = Higher average temperatures. You literally went on describe the effects of higher average temperatures. We're doomed.
You sound like one of those climate deniers.
The evidence is there for all to see - climate change is happening.
The ski season is getting shorter, the mountain biking and hiking season is getting longer.
Ski resorts will adapt in 2 ways imho: (i) sharp price increase to cover their costs which means skiing (on groomed slopes) will become an activity only reserved for a happy few or (ii) adapt their offers, i.e. shift to hiking, paragliding, mountain bike activities, etc i.e. stuff that you're bound to usually do more on summertime. Lots of mountain resorts already worked hard on attracting summer customers to welcome people year-round instead of just a couple of months per year. It's just that skiing won't be guaranteed in the Alps anymore and we'll just have to adapt to that.
And better snow making
It's sad, but i don't think that would be the worst thing to worry about. Mountains are still great no matter what.
Just got home fra Austria (Skiwelt) area and it rained up to 1800meters - visited the area for more than 20 years and its getting worse fast.
5 years ago I was on a camping trip where a hotel was named after the glacier because the glacier. First I wondered why they did this considering that the glacier was more than 10 kilometres away. But they told me that the glacier was once directly behind the hotel. The old pictures there where so incredible. I wonder if this glacier still exists.
Hotel Aletsch near the Aletsch glacier in Switzerland perhaps? Or Hotel Morteratsch near the Morteratsch glacier? There are many hotels in the Alps named after and located near glaciers.
In Norway temperature recently -32 C and too much snow! It's all normal we have good and bad winters
Of course, there has always been a mix of good and bad winters. However, this was the third winter in a row that brought long periods of rain during high winter all over Norway, including high elevation alpine regions including Trollheimen and Narvik... climate change is also reaching Norway
That is true, but this week snow melted almost totally here in the south. I went to Sweden for the weekend and it felt like springtime. Of course no snow at all (in Gothenburg)
normal@@honurapanui
the start of this season in Tirol was good with a lot of powder. End of November and early December it was like half of a meter in the valley (575 m). But it has been too hot for the last 2 weeks like it is real spring already.
We flew into Innsruck 11 days ago and it reached 17 degrees.
In our resort in the otztal at 1300, the days regularly peaked ar 12 degrees. We managed to get skiing up higher but you could see the melt happening which was so sad.. as somebody said the prolonged fohn conditions have been the issue there…
A chalet in Aspen Colorado broke the $100,000,000 mark, so real estate seems to be immune.
Of course is immune. Ski resorts are turning into farmland
Yet aspen is still overpriced because of the nearby skiing
aspen is above 2000m with skiing up to 3800m, real estate in high altitude resorts will boom because that’ll be the only places left with snow, it’s the low altitude resorts with middle & lower class ppl that will crash.
The southest ski resort in Europe (Sierra Nevada) hasn't been able to open the full station for years already. It has spring snow in January.
Living in Norway (also a place known for its snowy winters) I would say it is mostly the weather instability and extremes that are causing the problems. Here we have had weeks of record snow and -20C in november and december and then suddenly in January a week of +4C and rain, it is this that causes a lot of issues. Before when the weather was more stable it would just freeze continuously from october until the end of march, now it seems we are switching between deep winter conditions to spring conditions from week to week now 😑 Either one or the other would be better than this chaos.
Watching that while being a ski enthusiast makes me so sad..I wish there is still something to do in order to change this..
thank you, excellent video and information.
I sometimes go skiing in the Alps, on the border of Austria and Italy, around 1200m . Many nights it used to be -20 Celsius but now in mid-winter it rarely goes to -15. It has never rained there for as far as I remember but now it does in mid February. The only maybe good thing about this is that lately there is much more precipitation, so sometimes it does snow (just yesterday there was a strong snowstorms blowing over the village) a lot but right now it does not even look like skiing will be possible during the Easter holidays :(
❤Mr. Stege's so brave, going at that altitude in both the Zugspitze and Austrian lifts with his acrophobia, and seems so at home in the snow in this well-researched eye-opening feature!
It's nice that someone notices. A big challenge for me 😮 My colleague was very understanding and patient 🙏🏽
Yes, artificial snow from cannons is not as good as natural snow.
"I'am a beginner" : Guess what : everybody understood, watching you skiing 2 s. 😂
Flying to go skiing even short haul adds a massive percentage to your carbon footprint. If you fly long haul it multiplies. This is killing people in poorer countries, right now. So, the question is not about whether you can go skiing, it’s whether you are the kind of person who is happy taking avoidable actions that contribute to deaths of other people.
😂😂
As a swiss person it makes me really sad
As a Canadian person I would like to thank you for giving us hope. By financially destroying our western civilization so China can build 2 coal plants a week, we are making a difference
Mich au
I'm from Australia, and we are progressively moving from skis to downhill mountain bikes. Moving mountain sports from 3 months over winter to 9 months excluding winter. From this video it looks like we will end up with 12 months of mountain bikes.
Yeah mate you weren't riding 9 months of mtbs in the mountains
To his point though other cultures adapt to mother nature, as Europeans the idea that it's just a matter of money to change the environment.
do you even have snow in Australia?
@@_dyats yeah we have 8 resorts it's not all desert out there
I just went skien in saalbach, peaks there around 2000m ish. It was like 8 degrees above zero on the peaks
It's places like Tignes and Val Thorens that are high that will sustain more of the industry and ski holidays. That's why you're seeing club meds opening massive operations in those operations.
They will, and skiing will become even more exclusive for the wealthiest only.
@@Daz555Dazluckily touring is a thing.
@@highertest True. It's a completely different sport though.
I was in VT end of Jan beginning of Feb. We had a day where it was 10 degrees
The fact there isn't snow in the alps - the least of our worries is not being able to ski
Get ready for the ride boys. Next 20-30 years are gonna be turbulent.
I worked the 18/19/19/20 seasons in Austria, the 18/19 season was amazing but the following season was terrible, on the Kitzsteinhorn glacier you can really see where thr snow level has dropped, i remember going there in 2004 and some of the pistes are not even there anymore but you can see where they were from the ridge, must be about 50ft down now.
Snow is zell am see is terrible year on year, it was horrendous when i visited last year, all fake snow below about 800m.
Without the snow cannons they would not be able to open at all i think even up to 2000m. They were going day and night through november trying to get enough cover to open the pistes in December but then it was just hardpack ice most the time, not really enjoyable at all.
I'm a snowboarder since the early 00's but when i see where the things are going recently i decided to get a splitboard. It doesn't help for the climate change obviously but at least it gives me some more additional years and i can discover many other places outside of the ski areas. As ppl said in the video: you have to be flexible and have a plan B or even C.
I live in New England and I have worked outside my entire life. I used to pack a special bag, I called it my cold bag. I can’t remember the last time I even needed it. My neighbor is a logger and he says he is getting into the forest at least one month later and out at least one month sooner because the ground is no longer freezing. He needs frozen ground for his skidder to not sink in the mud. We are not getting massive rain storms that don’t seem to end. I feel my best snow days are behind me.
We had 11 degrees plus today in Saalbach (1050 m in the valley). 4th of February 2024. More like water skiing...
this was fimed mid december, now it is a different story, here in chamonix mont blanc its 20 degrees and running very low ...
I started sking around 1980. For a lot of the 80's the snow was so unrealiable in Europe that the travel companies had to start offering snow guarantees - ie if your resort had no snow they would transport you to the nearset place that did. There were lots of articles predicting the death of the sking industry in Europe at that time. But then the snow returned. I'm not denying climate change but we have been here before.
Wrong. Artificial snow became a thing and lack of snow was due to colder climate, meaning less water in the atmosphere. In Ice Age for example it was blue skies all the time, no clouds, you can guess why.
The answer is monutain biking, together with a renewened focus on xc skiing and parallel sports
The answer would be to limit warming to less than 2 degrees but we know the capitalists and goverments will not permit that to happen.
So everyone travelling extreme distances to ski are complaining that the slopes are disappearing? The irony is not lost here.
How bout french people living next to the alps ? Are they allowed to complain ?
I don't care i just wanna ski
I'm sure this is correct but my experience from Sweden is when you actually start looking at data from 100 years back very little changed in the depth of snow and it varies quite a bit from year to year, so when old people here said that back in the days they had soo much snow they probably just remember the peaks of the data.
Ladies and Gentlemen. The proof is in Italy's lake with the tank on the bottom. That used to be heavely fought over Alpine territory between French/Switzerland and Italy/Germany. So to answer the rest of the question. The tank stands in an old avalanche zone.
You have to hurry up to learn skiing before the snow goes away😁
Zermatt ski area is completely different to how it was just 15 years ago with the glaciers receding at an alarming rate.
I skied the alps for the first time last year in zermatt. It was an amazing experience but it was definitely depressing hearing about how different winters are now from some locals we met. Us new Englanders are use to the bull shit but not long ago the winters use to be cold and snowy always.
difficult to watch this.
his skiing, that is...😑
Do you call it skiing?
Australia has been getting poor ski seasons
rarely any snow in the Toronto, Canada
Come south to Vermont, New York, New Hampshire. We have plenty.
Alpine winter seasons vary. 40 years ago I booked a ski holiday in les Gets in late January having been disappointed by the snow cover in previous winters. When I got there the slopes were green.
Yes, but this was incidental. You just got unlucky. Now, it’s becoming a constant problem. Think you are missing the point here.
I have been back to the same area for many years. Loads of snow last winter, not much low down this year but still loads at higher elevations. It is unreasonable to expect unvarying snow cover year after year at 1000 metres elevation, too many variables.@@wisecoonie
@@mrradman2986 you’re speaking about 1 (ONE) ski area. I’m skiing since 24 years and I have SEEN how the snow cover has been declining from year to year. In ALL ski areas I have been to. Last year 15 degrees (!!) at 2000 meters in Val di Fiemme half february! The situation this year threatens to repeat itself. Actually, there are warnings going out for the skiers going to the Alps: very hard snow, due to unusual high temperatures. It is complete nonsense and a sticking-the-head-in-the-arse mentality to pretend there is nothing major going on. Already it has been proven, beyond any doubt, that the gulfstream , responsible for the seasonal cold, has slowed down and has changed its usual course by several degrees. You can of course ignore all that, but unfortunately the facts just prove you wrong.
@@mrradman2986there are fluctuations of course year to year but the trend, in terms of snow days and days with snow on the ground, has only gone in one direction for the last 50 years.
@@wisecoonieno it’s not a constant problem.
Snow cover and snow height in the alps hardly changed over the last 50 years (less than 10%). That’s statistically proven.
Only the reporting in your newspapers now is focused on lack of snow. We had winters in the 1970s where ski resorts in Salzburg and Tyrol couldn’t open because there was no snow.
Sad seeing snow cannons, not the same at all.. 😢
And of course the issue is that, with the huge amounts of flying and driving necessary to do them, snowsports have always been an incredibly environmentally unfriendly business.
Like any other travel?🤔 actually i see a ton of people from far away in the summer but not much in the ski resorts..
Also, necessary? Some of us live close to ski resorts😀
@@lukazupie7220 some live close but the vast majority do not. There's a huge international ski holiday industry in operation in case you hadn't noticed. And same goes for the summer - international tourism to the same resorts.
@@lukazupie7220 "Some of us..." and the vast majority don't and travel from other countries.
@@andygolborne5747 choose to ignore my point i see😀
@@lukazupie7220 no - I chose to point out that there's a huge international ski industry flying people to resorts. UK airports are full of winter sports passengers this time of year flying to the Alps. And driving. It's half term in France right now and its the busiest time at the Alps resorts as well as roads being rammed, as people are travelling hundreds of miles out to ski.
I prefered the presentation format used in your video about skiing in winterberg DW news
Really want to teach my little boy skiing but I feel like it might be almost cruel to get him into a dying sport. Our family grew up skiing in Austria and have had so much joy from skiing over the years.
Before 2010 in Sestriere (Italy) it was common to have -20 degrees around Christmas time (with water that would freeze in the pipes) and walls of snow to get into the houses. Since 2008 (the last big snow year), this has never been the case again. It is February 2024 and it is raining at 2000+ meters. Zero snow, grass everywhere.
I am just back from skiing in the alps. Perfect conditions. No problemo
Lucky you!
Northern pakistan and Kashmir the mountains are almost 3000m high
som more mountain bike parks?
Lukas Stege is a great Reporter. One is sure that Skiresort on lower altitudes they will disapear. Only Skiresrot on higher alitudes will survie.
Not even that, because glaciers are melting and rendering the places unsafe. Val Thorens's Péclet glacier has molten and they had to dismantle all the summer ski up there, and it's not safe during the winter either.
I was in Sestrière 2 weeks ago, and at 2800m it was raining and all the snow was melting. I'd post a picture of the disaster if I could...
Need to put parasols up for the glaciers!
normaly in turkey kayseri we should have snow in like at city but not a single cm fell to the city and its litle bit icy at Erciyes
We had record snow in the Austrian alps just a few years ago.
Individual years don't change the overall trend - which has been on a downward path for at least 50 years.
And we had record snow in Munich this year. But since that one week 2 months ago everything is gone and green again. How is that beneficial to winter sports?
The extremes are getting more extreme with the average slowly increasing - everyone not accepting this is just in denial.
@@ICHDERTWEETY show me proof that the extremes are getting more extreme. And I mean statistical proof not news articles.
Just remember the catastrophe in Germany in 1978 where 20 people (and more than 100.000 farm animals) died and almost 1000 got injured because of the snow and cold.
Ort he famines in the early 20th century because of the cold weather.
@@Daz555Dazthat’s true. But the trend is quite small for the alps (around 10 %) and snow cover in the ski resorts is now much better than 40-50 years ago since there is artificial snowmaking too.
@@patrick.771 Untrue. You cant make artificial snow in positive temperatures. Also, more snow is due to more water vapor in the air from global warming so every once in a while when it drops below zero it snows heavily.
Can someone please explain how snow canons solve the temperature problem? I was under the impression that snow canons solve the problem of insufficient precipitation, not elevated temperatures... In my experience the artificial snow melts just as quick as the natural snow.
They can only make snow when the temperatures are low enough, which usually means at night time if the daytime temperatures are too high.
Just came back from a week of skiing in Chamonix and I sh** you not, you could've skied with a t-shirt on it was that warm.
Climates change naturally and we are currently nearing solar maximum which means slightly warmer temperatures and less snow. It's perfectly normal.
How many thousand times have they had this same weather?
😢 No snow in Kashmir 😢
I am 76 years old, and let me tell you something: Alps have seen worse days. Back in my days it was normal to have green up there. I found this video misleading folks
It's very misleading as it happens all the time. Nothing new just trying to scare people and it's working unfortunately.
Having this entire industry coming to end is an economic problem, but I think the biggest problem with global warming is farming. We need farms to feed us all, if the climate changes enough to make farming just not possible anymore across large regions then it'll be devastating.
Farms across Europe can obviously just start growing crops that are normally grown in hot climates like Africa, but hotter climates like Africa will be just too hot for farming. So then there will be absolutely massive economic pressures forcing hundreds of millions of people from these hotter climates to places where it's easier for humans to survive like Europe.
When Europe gets half a billion climate refugees from Africa then no one is going to care about the ski resorts.
Global warming caused by farming??This insanity will lead to famines in Europe one day. And you bought the Elites message as a fool.
The world climate has changed millions of times before man.
Be sure to pay more in taxes and give up your freedoms to the Elites!
Like it never happened before for example Ukrainie or other countries were exporting crops and food to Africa since long time ago my friend and I woud not be scared only for Africa bur for europe too we can reverse this process simply by foresting more lands and not destroying tropical jungle for heavy metals for the new EVs batteries but hey EVs are eco tho 😂
@@bartekb4191 so by "foresting more land" do you mean foresting the land that is currently used for food production, or the land that doesn't have any trees on it because the local climate isn't suitable. Which land do you want to forest?
@matthewbaynham6286 there is allot of free Land not used for anything for example in the place i was born there was big black wilderness Forrest about 200 years ago but people cut it down and now there are fields with Land that is not good for crops because it's only sand or bad category dirt and you can find allot of places like that in whole world additional to that people are cutting of rainforests to get into lithium or other metals and guess or check how much oxygen rainforest produce and additional to that we can produce oxygen with water plants there is allot of alternatives like foresting cities or making them more green but people create more concrete or everyone wants to live in big cities and not in villages and they don't whant to produce their own food or farm chickens or anything easy life buy everything from grocery shop live in overcrowded cities and than complain about ecology and pay for somone who says they make world better ye great plan
Get ready to eat some juicy insects, it was decided at the summit in Davos
Guarda in alto e guarda, c’è sempre qualcosa di strano nei cieli…..
crazy how you ask the presenter to smile at the camera, but he's obviously terrified. i am just guessing he will be the happiest when all the snow melts forever and won't have to go through all this again 😂
Move up the hill where its colder 😉
My opinion season can be smaller. But if It'll be expensive like in US or Japan, then count of skiers will go down 20 times, similar to US and Japan. It is not possible to pay 400 EUR for one day skipass like Americans pay.
Skiing in Japan is cheap though, readily below 100EUR per day including rental. But then if you have to fly from Europe that costs a lot more.
Working in the field of sustainability, always wonder how non-sustainability these snow cannons are, and to what point should people push to keep the old habits/business.
Artificial snow should be banned. Makes no sense to waste resources on a hobby. Disappearance of skiing is a matter of a few decades anyhow (optimistically)
Out of 1/3 of all ski resorts in Austria who were asked within a statistic, 98% rely purely on renewable energy. This also includes snow cannons. The water usage resembles a cycle of use. As critically seen as this is within the media, many ski resorts are even further ahead than the usual industry when it comes to making tourism eco friendly.
Depends. At my resorts, channels are made on the slopes to direct snowmelt into a stream that feeds the retention pond used to make the snowfall. So the issue really is energy usage and how they source it.