Are Skiing and Winter Sports doomed?

Having just returned from a 5-day ski trip that 25 years ago certainly would have provided 5-days of snow filled skiing, with good base depth and cold weather, Winter- or the lack thereof- was on my mind.  While early December was cold, a warm weather system drove temperatures in Vermont into the 50s and we suffered through 2.5 days of rain that basically wiped out skiing at Mad River Glen.

With no natural snow to ski on, we were relegated to skiing on manmade snow at Sugarbush.  Because Sugarbush had been blowing snow since November, they had enough base depth to survive the warm weather and rain.  There is no doubt now that climate change is upon us, most experts agree. Even if we can't agree what the cause is (I'll save that point for later), the trend is clear. Melting glaciers, shrinking polar ice, increased temperatures. The season of winter is becoming shorter, starting later and ending earlier.  The amount of snowfall and snowpack is dropping.

This is of particular issue at Western resorts, and was featured in a recent article in Powder magazine about "why snowmaking won't save us…"  The large Western resorts like Vail and Snowbird are huge amounts of terrain compared to smaller eastern ski areas. Snow making there is not feasible due to the high cost, limited water supply and regulatory restrictions. The article predicted that by the year 2100, that most of the Western USA ski resorts will be closed due to lack of snowpack. Those that remain will only have snow at their highest elevations.  In the east, only 4 of the largest ski resorts will remain. This is a scary thought..in just over 80 years, the sport of skiing and mountain snow sports could vanish. If climate change accelerates it could be even sooner.

I am seeing it in my own lifetime. Growing up in lower New York State we routinely had long, cold snowy winters. I have photos of snowbanks in our driveway that were 6 feet tall.  Small eastern ski resorts operated for many years without snowmaking systems.  While they were dependent on mother nature for snow, the snow was routinely reliable. Then beginning in the late 1970s there seemed to be fewer cold winters, more warm weather and rain. Today, there are few, if any eastern ski areas that operate without snowmaking.   Certainly the small, family oriented mountains cannot depend on natural snow in New Jersey in Pennsylvania.  At one time there were hundreds of smaller ski hills that dotted the landscape.  But due to the high cost of snowmaking infrastructure and operation, it does not work well on a small scale. So we are left with only two ski areas in NJ and a handful of larger mountains in the Poconos.  Snowmaking has even found its way to the Northernmost reaches of Vermont.

Snowmaking was once a way to extend the ski season. It could start earlier and end later with man made snow. But now, without it, some winters there would be no ski season at all. Mad River Glen, which lacks extensive snowmaking opened on December 15th with 40 of its 45 trails. But that opening only lasted 5 days, through Friday Dec. 20th.  By the time the warm weather/rain event was done, the only terrain available was one smaller trail fed by man-made snow.  It is likely there will be more snow in January, and they will reopen all 45 trails. But this is becoming all too familiar a pattern. A later start, a melt-down and then reopening in Mid-January. The ski season which used to extend into April, is now often done by March 20th.  Ski areas make nearly half their revenue on Christmas week. It is a huge blow to not have snow on the trails. It is a big expense to have to blow snow at times when 25 years ago the areas could rely on natural snow fall.

So yes, the future of skiing and outdoor winter sports is certainly looking grim, for our children and grandchildren.