Winter Meltdown: Why ski resorts in Europe are shutting their doors

The large swathes of snow that cover the Alps are missing this winter, forcing many European ski resorts to shut their doors.

From Chamonix in France to Innsbruck in Austria, the seasonal snow on slopes has been replaced by grass, rock and mud. The northern Alps and French Pyrenees are the most hit by this shortage of snow, as per Independent.

Why is Europe witnessing a record-breaking warm winter? Why is there not enough snow for ski resorts to operate? Will the situation improve or get worse in the future? Let’s take a look.

Warm winter in Europe

Eight European countries reported their warmest January day ever on New Year’s Day this year.

A weather station in the Jura range on the French border hit a record average daily temperature of 18.1 degrees Celsius on the first day of the year.

According to Méteo France, the French national meteorological service, the temperature in the country in December last year was the warmest in 25 years, reported Sky News.

Mercury in parts of Switzerland and southern Germany has already surpassed 20 degrees Celsius this month.

Poland has seen daily high temperatures in double digits in recent days.

A mild south-westerly wind and a Foehn effect are causing temperatures on the north side of the Alps “worthy of June”, The Guardian reported citing MeteoSwiss, Switzerland’s national weather and climate service.

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MeteoSuisse joked on its blog as per Associated Press (AP): “… this turn of the new year could almost make you forget that it’s the height of winter.”

ALSO READ: Where’s the snow? The winter heat wave in Europe explained

Ski resorts close

Innsbruck in Austria, Villars-Sur-Ollon and Crans-Montana in Switzerland, and Germany’s Lenggries have one thing in common – there is not enough snow.

Many ski resorts have either closed or are adapting to their snowless reality.

“There literally is no snow this year,” Christine Harrison, a long-time visitor of Le Praz De Lys-Sommand, a small ski resort in the French Alps, told CNN.

The resorts around Salzburg in Austria last saw snow a month ago, noted BBC.

One of the latest resorts to close its slopes because of the warm wet weather was Ax 3 Domaines, near France’s border with Andorra.

The Swiss resort of Splugen-Tambo also announced Monday that it was closing “until further notice”.

“Unfortunately, due to the lack of snow, the heavy rainfall and high temperatures, we have to close our ski resort from 2 January 2023, until further notice,” it said in a statement, as per Sky News.

Over half of the 7,500 ski slopes in France have been shut due to “a lack of snow and a lot of rain”, Laurent Reynaud, managing director at Domaines Skiables de France, the national body representing ski resorts, told CNN Travel.

“There was a good start to the season with a cold wave in mid-December which provided some white to pretty much everyone. Then, last week, there was quite a bit of rain and warm temperatures, so a certain number of runs had to close again,” Reynaud said on C-News television.

Whatever snow is available in these lower altitude resorts is not suitable for winter sports.

Hacher Bernet, the director of Splügen’s ski lifts, told BBC, “It’s really too wet, like in spring. For skiing, the snow needs to hold together - there’s just too much water in this, it’s impossible.”

The situation is not the same everywhere though.

French resorts located at higher-altitude such as Les Deux Alpes, which have 70 per cent of slopes above 2,000 metres, have enough snow for skiers.

The highest resorts are still open for now in Switzerland, but some have to depend heavily on artificial snow, as per BBC. 

The mid-and low-level resorts in the northern Alps and across the Pyrenees suffering from the shortage of snow are scrambling to offer alternatives to their customers.

Some resorts are encouraging skiers to go on mountain bike rides, enjoy summer hiking paths, and even take horse-drawn carriage rides, as per The Guardian.

The Adelboden resort in Switzerland, which would host the ski World Cup event this weekend, told The Guardian that most of it would be held on artificial snow.

Climate change worries

The crunch of snow has triggered anxiety about drastic changes in temperatures due to climate change.

Climate experts have been warning for a long time that global warming will lead to warmer, wetter winters.

As per The Guardian, Wim Thiery, a professor of climate science at the University of Brussels, said that by the end of the century, “skiing in the Alps as we know is just going to be over. These problems will just get worse … as long as the climate warms”.

A recent study by the University of Basel has alerted that the dependence of higher resorts on artificial snow will increase, with their water consumption surging by up to 80 per cent.

Weather tracker Wilkin said the Alpine climate situation is increasingly “volatile,” which would only get worse as the climate crisis hits Europe, CNN reported.

“There’ll be skiing for a long time yet,” Wilkin stated, adding “but we will see our resorts under more and more pressure. And we will see more people need to go higher, and that will drive up prices.”

With inputs from agencies

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