Climate Change and the Future of Skiing
The Data Is Not Ambiguous
The European Alps have warmed by approximately 2°C since pre-industrial times — roughly twice the global average warming rate — and the trend is accelerating. Glacier retreat data from the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (WSL) and the Austrian Alpine Club document the loss of more than half of Alpine glacier volume since the late nineteenth century. The implications for skiing are direct: reduced snowpack depth, shorter reliable snow seasons at lower elevations, and glacier retreat that is now eliminating permanently snow-covered terrain at many resorts.
A 2021 study published in Nature Climate Change modelled European ski resort viability under 1.5°C, 2°C, and 4°C warming scenarios. Under a 2°C scenario, roughly half of currently operating European ski resorts face marginal snow reliability without snowmaking intervention. Under 4°C — which some current emissions trajectories project by end of century — over 80% of European resorts would require snowmaking across the entire season just to maintain a viable operating window.
North America presents a similar picture. The Sierra Nevada snowpack — critical for California resorts from Mammoth Mountain (top elevation 3369 m) down to Lake Tahoe area operations — has shown a long-term declining trend in snow water equivalent, with high year-to-year variability masking the directional signal. The Pacific Northwest, which supplies moisture to Crystal Mountain, Stevens Pass, and Mt Baker in Washington, has seen warmer wet seasons with more rain-on-snow events. The Rocky Mountain resorts — Aspen, Vail, Park City — sit at higher elevations and have greater natural snow reliability, but even there, the spring closure dates have crept earlier and lower-elevation base areas are increasingly reliant on snowmaking in December.
Snowmaking: Scale, Limits, and Cost
Snowmaking has become the primary adaptation strategy for lower-elevation ski resorts worldwide. The technology has improved substantially: modern high-efficiency snow guns (Technoalpin, Sufag, SMI) can produce snow at temperatures as warm as -2°C wet-bulb rather than the -8°C required by older equipment. Variable-speed compressor systems reduce energy consumption by matching output to conditions in real time rather than running at constant capacity.
The economic reality is that large-scale snowmaking is expensive in both capital and operating terms. Installing snowmaking infrastructure across a major European resort — Ischgl, Verbier, or Les Deux Alpes — costs hundreds of millions of euros. Operating costs are dominated by water and electricity; a large resort may consume several million kilowatt-hours of electricity per season just for snowmaking, and the water volumes required are enormous. Alps resorts increasingly rely on high-altitude reservoirs to store water from spring snowmelt for use in autumn and early winter snowmaking — a cycle that works as long as there is sufficient spring snowmelt to fill the reservoirs.
The energy paradox is real. Electricity-intensive snowmaking at scale contributes to the CO2 emissions that drive the warming that makes snowmaking necessary. Resorts running on hydroelectric power (many Swiss and Austrian operations) can plausibly claim near-zero-emission snowmaking; resorts sourcing power from grid mixes that include fossil fuels cannot make the same claim. The decarbonisation of resort electricity supply has become a genuine priority for operators aware of the reputational issue.
Altitude and Winners and Losers
Climate change is not uniformly bad news for every ski resort, and the variation by altitude is significant. High-altitude resorts — Verbier (3300 m top), Val Thorens (3230 m), Tignes (3456 m), Saas-Fee (3600 m), Hintertux Glacier (3250 m, year-round skiing) — have sufficient elevation that their upper terrain retains reliable natural snow even in warming scenarios that eliminate lower resorts entirely. The transition from natural snow reliance to snowmaking dependence is happening first and most severely at resorts below 1500 metres base elevation.
The effect is a concentration of skiing into fewer, higher, better-capitalised resorts over time. French mega-resorts with high-altitude access (the Three Valleys, Espace Killy, Paradiski) are better positioned than lower-elevation Austrian and German village resorts. In the US, Colorado's high-elevation resorts (Vail base at 2476 m, Aspen Mountain base at 2422 m) are better positioned than California or New England resorts where base elevations are often below 1000 m.
In the Southern Hemisphere, Chile and Argentina face different but related pressures. Las Leñas in Mendoza province and Portillo in Chile operate at high elevations — around 3000 m base — and have historically reliable snowpacks, but Andean snowpack has declined measurably, particularly in the northern part of the range. New Zealand resorts (Cardrona, Treble Cone, Mt Hutt) have increasingly relied on snowmaking as a buffer against erratic early-season conditions.
Glacier Skiing: The Disappearing Asset
Summer and autumn glacier skiing has been part of the European resort business model since the 1970s. Glaciers at Hintertux, Saas-Fee, Les Deux Alpes, Val d'Isère (Glacier du Pisaillas), and Pitztal and Stubai in Austria have historically extended the skiing season into summer and provided reliable early-season conditioning. The retreat of these glaciers is visually dramatic and operationally significant.
The Stubai Glacier lost around 30 metres of ice thickness at its upper sections between 1983 and 2020. Hintertux, which uses the Tuxer Ferner glacier and has been year-round for decades, maintains more ice volume than lower glaciers and has invested heavily in artificial snow supplementation on the lower runs. Saas-Fee's Mittelallalin glacier — at 3500 m the highest lift-served terrain in the Alps — has fared better than valley glaciers but is retreating measurably. Several glacier ski areas in Austria have voluntarily abandoned autumn openings or summer operations as the ice has retreated beyond viable terrain.
Industry Responses Beyond Snowmaking
Carbon-neutral pledges have proliferated among ski resort operators, with mixed credibility. Vail Resorts committed to zero net emissions by 2030; Compagnie des Alpes has published a 2030 sustainability roadmap; various independent Alpine resorts are pursuing EMAS (Eco-Management and Audit Scheme) certification. Renewable energy sourcing, lift electrification, resort-owned electric vehicle fleets, and reduced aviation-related marketing are the most commonly cited initiatives.
Diversification of the summer product — trail running events, mountain biking, hiking, via ferrata, and outdoor festivals using existing lift infrastructure — is the revenue-hedge strategy most larger resorts are pursuing actively. The French term 'quatre saisons' (four seasons) describes the aspiration: resorts that are financially viable year-round rather than dependent on a three-to-four-month winter window.
Open the map to explore ski resorts by elevation and region, and identify which destinations have the natural altitude and snowmaking infrastructure to remain reliable options in coming decades.
The sport of skiing will survive climate change in some form. What will change is the geography of where it happens reliably, the price point required to maintain snowmaking infrastructure, and the economic viability of smaller, lower-elevation operations that cannot fund the capital investment the altered climate demands. The consolidation is already visible in the corporate acquisition of smaller resorts by Vail Resorts, Alterra Mountain Company, and major French conglomerates. The long-term map of viable skiing will be drawn at higher altitudes and with deeper pockets than the twentieth-century model required.