The alternative is ready

Climate change is a fact and we have to learn to deal with it. Setting climate targets is the right thing to do, but the ways of achieving them vary in intensity. Only those who seek new ways will find innovative solutions. As recently as the 1980s, there was at least 5 meters of consolidated snow in winter in the ski resorts of the Central Alps at an altitude of about 1500 meters above sea level. In many hotels, the only way to get to the hotel was via the second floor. Now, in many ski resorts in the Central Alps, it will be too warm to make snow on the slopes in winter. And then? Yesterday‘s snow in the Alps for most of the 2022/2023 season won‘t come until mid-January 2023. Fewer snow-covered ski areas = less tourism = lower to no revenue; with ongoing costs.

To squeeze costs, dozens of ski areas at elevations below 900m have already not even started the season! Is there alternative snow? Is artificial snow out and synthetic snow in? The art is to create snow without using guns. Significantly more than half of the CO2 emissions from skiing are caused by the ever longer journey by car, for example towards higher alpine ski resorts, as well as their glacier areas. For this reason, too, it is desirable if the smaller ski resorts can continue to exist and offer skiing safety. Whether beginner or advanced skier, only those who know they can ski will go to a ski resort. Ski resorts above 1500m, which can be reached with fast gondolas and speed chairlifts, do not need to worry about snow safety.

Only these areas also have a valley station! This is where the Mecca of beginners and children‘s ski schools is located - in other words, the future of alpine winter sports. What are the implications of „no more skiing“ for winter sports countries? In Oberaudorf, Bavaria (GER), the first dry ski slope was built in the kids ski area to enable the local ski school to hold ski courses at all. The kids ski area at the Hocheck adventure mountain is only at about 580m. Actually a snow hole, water supply is ensured and the 40 snow cannons normally ensure complete snow making of the slopes within a week for the pre-Christmas season.

Due to high temperatures, no operation could be carried out until about the end of January. The managing director of the mountain ski resort, Hannes Rechenauer, had recently noticed a noticeable decline in young skiers, for example among schoolchildren who come to Oberaudorf from the big city of Munich by regional train. Twenty years ago, he says, about half of a class could ski. „Now, with 30 kids, there are maybe seven or eight left.“ Without guaranteed snow, there‘s no ski camp. „Then the teachers say they‘d rather go to the zoo.“ With the mat ski run, Rechenauer, at any rate, now has more foot traffic than he himself expected. „I‘m surprised how well people have taken to it,“ he says. „Kids and beginners see it as a good alternative.“ In the upper area at about 850m, the approximately 300m-long drag lift is scheduled to be activated as early as the beginning of October. A mat ski slope about 10m wide should ensure that the more than 100 ski clubs in the area, technical training with slalom and giant slalom for the youth can carry out. Expensive car journeys with high CO2 emission journeys into the glacier skiing areas are to be reduced in such a way al

A similar project is being implemented this spring by the Sporthotel Elldus in Oberwiesenthal (GER). A dry slope ski slope and tubing lanes in the same place with conveyor belt in summer and winter operation. By the way, more and more private people buy the mats to build a rail in their own backyard. The demand from the clientele is there. The alternative to artificial snow shows a sustainable way to achieve climate goals. Skitrax World Where snow is missin