By Barbara Walshe

Although it’s an issue that seems to have suddenly emerged out of nowhere over the last year, the decline of snow on mountains and at ski resorts has been a growing agenda item for the winter sports industry over the past two decades.

Renowned winter sports writer Patrick Thorne, recently named one of the 50 people to know in travel by The Times, has created www.SaveOurSnow.com, a website dedicated to raising awareness of green issues in skiing. He tells Coutts Woman: “I became gradually aware from writing about ski resorts for 20 years that they were no longer spending as much on new lifts and ski runs but more and more on snow making.”

The reason? Global warming which has led to a cut in snowfall and more sunshine, which is melting glaciers. Everest is one casualty so far. Now calculated to be 8,848 metres high, it has experienced a drop of 1.3 metres due to glacier melt - all attributed to global warming. The Rockies are set to be another victim. Research undertaken by Colorado College last year revealed that, by 2050, springtime snow pack is likely to decrease by 37 per cent. And by as much as 80 per cent in the Southwest.

To fight this problem, many ski resorts are taking action both for the future of their industry, but also for the safety of inhabitants and tourists at ski resorts now.

Ski infrastructure built over the past few decades relies on frozen ground for stability. So, as global warming and glacial melt increases, lift stations and other structures built high on the mountains are at great risk. Mountain collapse is another concern. As permanent freezing binds high mountains together, it prevents potentially unstable ones from collapsing into valleys below. Without mountain bind, rock fall, landslides and mudslides are also threatening.

So, how much action is being taken? According to Thorne, who has ranked over 200 ski resorts on their ‘greenness’, there’s a dual response on both sides of the Atlantic. Some resorts are taking serious action while others are unwilling to change or acknowledge the problem.

"The big issue in terms of carbon output is actually getting to the resort. A day on the slopes is minuscule in terms of power used by ski lifts in comparison" Patrick Thorne, writer and creator of www.SaveOurSnow.com 

At the top end of the scale in the US is Jiminy Peak in New England, a resort making herculean attempts to cut its CO2 by erecting a huge windmill to generate its own electricity. Other resorts are buying in 100 per cent green power. On the lower end of the scale, resorts are asking guests to turn off lights in their rooms and to refrain from washing towels too often.

In Europe, the response has been more low key, according to Thorne. “Some European resorts have been ‘green’ long before the environment and climate change became an issue. There are resorts that ban car traffic altogether and they are more likely to be supplied by a local hydroelectric power system. They haven’t previously seen this as something to shout about in their marketing, although that’s slowly changing.”

However, in Europe and America, there are resorts that are failing to see the bigger picture. With Eco-awareness becoming more attractive to ‘green’ tourists, they’re using their initiatives as a unique selling point to drive up business - with disastrous effects.

“North American resorts that shout loudest about how green they are also in the midst of multi-hundred-million dollar property developments,” says Thorne. How green is expansion? Aspen’s ski lifts are, quite rightly, lauded and awarded for being one of the greenest in the world but their resort attracts thousands of private jet flights to the local airport each winter. Which means that, despite its Eco-efforts, Aspen, on the whole, is generating more CO2 than most other ski resorts on the planet.

Transport to and from ski resorts is one of the main points highlighted by Thorne in some Eco-research he conducted recently. It seems that while resorts make attempts to go green, it is in fact us, the tourists, who wield the greatest power. “The big issue in terms of carbon output is actually getting to the resort. A day on the slopes is minuscule in terms of power used by ski lifts in comparison,” he confirms.

Thorne’s research concluded that, for a week’s ski trip from London to Geneva, the CO2 output per skier is split 50/50 for flights and a week at the resort. It is a 75/25 per cent split to Bulgaria, and a 95/5 per cent split to Colorado (or somewhere similar).

The message is clear. To really ski in Eco-style this year, leave the private jet and helicopter where it is, and ski as closer to home. Travelling abroad? Thorne isn’t wholly convinced by the carbon offsetting debate (‘I’m sitting on the fence!’) but, where possible, travel by train.

To really save the planet’s snow and to protect the environment however, this is just the beginning. Thorne is adamant that there needs to be a complete turnaround in people’s minds, from the use of electricity in homes to cars, holidays and much more.

“We still need to make quantum leaps in how we do things because we’re only seeing parts of the issue and not acting comprehensively. We need radical thought on the thousands of things we do, multiplied by the millions of us out there. That’s what’s needed to make a real difference,” he confirms.

Are you serious about Eco-skiing and saving the planet’s snow? Why not donate to the www.saveoursnow.com campaign where your funds will go towards conducting more research and scientific studies that indicate snowfall in 25, 50 and 100 years, and building an interactive ‘melt map’ for Eco-conscious tourists.

Looking for some luxury skiing in Eco-style? Patrick Thorne recommends:

• Courchevel in France– all its lifts are powered by green energy and the trail groomers by bio diesel.
• Lech and Zurs  in Austria – use a biomass communal heating system by burning resort waste and have a solar powered chair lift.
• St Moritz in Switzerland – runs a lot of initiatives and has its own hydroelectric business.
• Aspen skiing company and Jackson Hole in the US – go to incredible lengths to cut waste and use green power.

And some more ways to go green:

• If travelling to the US, check the resort has signed up to the Sustainable Slopes campaign run by the National Ski Area Association. For other areas, ask your operator if the resort is International Standards Organisation (ISO) 14001 accredited. 
• Ask your tour operator for their written responsible tourism policy, if they haven’t got one, they probably are not taking it seriously. 
• Consider ski touring, cross country skiing or snow shoeing. They are less dependent on graded slopes and ski lifts and has little negative impact on the mountain. 
• Avoid lower-lying resorts that use fake snow, snowmaking can draw water from lakes and rivers. 
• Take your litter home with you. If you see litter, just swoop down and pick it up.
• Respect the natural habitat of mountain animals and plants by taking care not to damage vegetation, knocking off branches or damaging shoots when skiing.