Switzerland: snow flown in by helicopter in attempt to keep ski slopes open
switzerlandtimes.ch
switzerlandtimes.ch
Anyway, Gstaad is not far from Glacier 3000 which has most of its slopes at, yes, 3,000m, so anyone in Gstaad doesn't have to go far for (currently) guaranteed snow. The snow up there should be pretty good.
Lack of snow in this region isn't unusual at this time of year, we had a good amount at the beginning of Dec. What has been unusual is the high temperatures, which has meant that snow is now mostly gone and the snow generating machines are of no use. We've also had a lot of rain, which has made managing the existing snow difficult.
This is the future of low to mid level resorts however. In a couple of generations time they won't be able to offer skiing, or the length of the ski season will be significantly reduced. I shot a photo project on this when I first arrived here, nearly a decade ago: https://www.formulanon.com/switzerland-bergbahnen
But the run will still be closed for a while, because it doesn't make sense to continually groom the run leading up to and during competition or practice. Generally it's not closed to just snowboarders, but to anybody who isn't involved with the event. At least that's how they do it here in CO.
I'd prefer snowboarding Alta too, but seeing for myself the difference to the snow and to the traffic patterns, I can see my snowboard would undermine Alta's preferential characteristics, so I'm happy they're separate.
Gstaad is an interesting place. They have a yacht club but no lake for example...
While here Gstaad is still open to the "common man". Yes, it's expensive skiing eating and hotels, with a lot of celebrities coming and going. It's also pretty big with 176km of pistes (where in NA how big a resort is is measured in skiable acres instead, so to give you an idea, it has 10 cable cars, 13 chairs and 13 surface lifts). So big enough they have to also aim for "normal people". Just mentioning it since the word exclusive might spring to mind a different kind of resort than some Americans are used to.
The cost to exist and engage in the day to day commerce of life there is sufficiently high that the common man does not and mostly cannot bother hence no need for other forms of exclusivity.
However if the problem these Swiss resorts are having is that it’s just consistently too warm them this is unfortunately probably the beginning of the end for them. Flying snow in via helicopters strikes me as trying to rearrange the deck chairs on the Titanic.
https://www.alpinevalleyohio.com/
The Great Lakes, except Superior, are nearly ice-free right now. In January! It's not looking good.
Ski resorts use helicopters for many logistical activities, if it keeps the area open they will do it. This year the Alps are having a particularly bad January, and with it only being four weeks till the traditional February rolling school holidays for family skiing trips, they are very concerned about keeping the areas open.
That's not to say there isn't a level of absurdity to the whole thing!
Obviously if it is really warm it will melt away in a few days after that but at least they can have their event.
Maybe they could do the same for these important spots around lifts etc.
One helicopter. *One*.
What would you suggest to submit instead?
Amortize that fossil fuel consumption per capita -- one helicopter, over thousands of vacationers -- and it's an absolutely trivial amount. In terms of pure numbers, most HN'ers did far "worse" things on their most recent vacation, even if it were a short car trip.
Alpine skiing is an activity that in the long run is on the way out due to climate change. As a result of a warming-induced deterioration of conditions we are burning more fossil fuels to support the industry that we're extinguishing with said fossil fuels.
The fact that it's an activity heavily associated with affluence aids the rage-bait.
Many resorts already do a brisk summer business - snow mass and telluride. For instance… Zermatt…
This Polar Vortex weirdness is what I've been hearing about.
Is there nothing the pursuit of profit won’t exploit?
In my coal plant example, workers are typically close to retirement and have limited means. They aren’t financially independent, so they need something to bridge the gap between this painful transition and death. I apologize that wasn’t clear in my original comment.
Help those who need the help, but let the wealthy take the L.
I think the swiss working class is a bit better of, than those in the subsahara facing drought.
They are in the need of transition funds.
I also think it would not be helpful to ban helicopter snow transport or something populistic, but it is really not smart, trying to keep things artificial alife - like certain wintersport areas - by means that contribute to the problem.
"I’m not giving funds to rich ski towns."
Me neither. The swiss might do it themself, but I thought we are arguing here on a more global level.
With such an argument we could drop everything we're doing in Switzerland, as we're probably better off than most other people in this world (by average).
Don't make the mistake to think that every Swiss citizen is well off. Very well off compared to the rest of the world, sure. But we have our own class of people who barely get through the month. (These people would be homeless and absolutely devastated in the US, so we have that going for us.)
The only income smaller ski regions have are winter sports. If this goes away, these regions will probably have some very difficult times. Now, I'm talking about the smaller ski regions with not that much wealth. Different story compared to Zermatt, St. Moritz etc.
> it is really not smart, trying to keep things artificial alife
I do agree with your main point! I also smh when I see all of the artificial snow machines which waste lots of water and energy, the tons of cars which travel to these regions, mass tourism etc.
Which doesn't mean that we can't also say, that the working class in these regions will be in serious trouble if we stop.
Which doesn't mean that we shouldn't stop. Complicated, I guess :)
Sure they're "rich", in the same way everyone in France, Italy and Austria are rich in a global context. But those areas are still going to need government support when the basis of their economy is wiped out.
Here is a ludicrous futurist thought experiment:
1) If the slopes could be covered in a building, similar to this: https://th-thumbnailer.cdn-si-edu.com/u-PEeOAFNhog5RDbemURPe...
2) If that building were highly insulated, but with the option to rapidly circulate outside air inside it (for use at night time, when the weather is colder).
3) If we could invent some new meta-material glass that allows infrared light to pass through it, then we could actually make this out of glass and still have the wonderful views on the mountain without incurring a huge greenhouse effect penalty for the transparency. In fact, if the glass is totally transparent to infrared and visible light LEAVING the covered slops, but slightly tinted for any light entering, then it would naturally be net cooler than the outside.
4) if the additional cooling required is powered by solar and wind.
5) Final ridiculous addition: Make these double paned glass roofs retractable so when real snow happens or the weather is cold enough, it is still outdoors.
Having the ability to still ski on the real slopes all year long would be great.
[1] https://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/eight-worlds-coolest-i...
In my city, the Christmas tree is flown in by helicopter each Christmas… because we have too much money I guess? It would totally fit by other means (truck, crane, however the rest of the world does it) but no we have to have this gigantic tree cut down, helicoptered in, and disposed of a month later. Infuriating.
When will we actually start to put a higher value on the planet when we make these decisions.
The irony....
If your snow mountain reflects most heat energy, has a great heat pump (including heating the homes and businesses) then you have a huge indoor ski mountain. Bonus if it's made inexpensively with recycled glass and plastic.
The article is written as if the whole sky resort looks as in the picture. While they actually tried to fix some patches of the route which had to few snow. Usually they fix it by moving snow around with a plow. Which they can not because the snow is to thin currently. Also they aborted after trying 9 times, because it was not economical.
I totally agree to the absurdity to transport snow with a helicopter. However it's a big difference between what people expect when reading this article to what really happened.
furthermore, checking on nic.ch yields:
Domain name switzerlandtimes.ch
Registrar MARCARIA.COM INTERNATIONAL INC.
501 Silverside Road, Suite 105
US-19809 Wilmington DE
Phone +1 3474711962
domains@marcaria.com
First registration date 20 March 2022
====
https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng is a nice english-language service.
(unfortunately I doubt it or the NZZ english version will be carrying this story)
As absurd as it is to see (I had my first ski lessons on those very slopes), I think it checks out.
https://www.srf.ch/news/schweiz/wegen-gruener-pisten-gstaad-...
https://www.hauptstadt.be/a/helikopterfluege-hauptstadt-brie...
However, the heli strategy did not work, as the CEO explains in “Capital”: “This attempt did not work,” says In-Albon. The amount of snow per flight is too small and loading and unloading too difficult.
It didnt even work.
Does taylor swift or ursula von der leyn really need a private plane for traveling 50km?
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2021/11/02/revealed-a...
Some people feel like they're treated like serfs: you stay in your village, on car, no flights, no tourism, save water, wave electricity, while I, the nobleman, get to travel to climate change conferences in private planes, because I am important to the cause.
Answering questions like "what should people do instead?" is important to figuring out how we can move away from things that damage the climate. If you just tell people "your life and livelihood isn't as important as X" isn't going to get that person to agree with you.
The point of my comment is not to trivialize the livelihoods of the inhabitants of “a few villages”. As you correctly point out, that would be crass and unfair.
The point of my comment is that climate change is an existential crisis at a scale much larger than “a few villages”: it’s fairly likely to result in an extinction event. For all villages.
The earth changes. Humanity doesn't have a responsibility to a resort owner keep things the same as they were when we started keeping good records.
I grew up in one of those tourism towns. It's like old school strip mining but for society. Instead of poisoning watersheds it poisons society. It turns businessmen into swindlers. It turns culture into caricature. It turns the economy into a disgusting web of perverse incentives in which every actor is constantly dealing in way that would give a mafia run dumpster company pause. Good riddance.
It's a massive waste of energy overall.
Paradoxically, global warming benefited Europe this winter, reducing the influence of the Russian gas embargo.
In any case, European countries have lower greenhouse gas emissions per citizen than, say, the US or Australia (since we actually have emissions taxes).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_greenhous...
When your enjoyment requires the equivalent of thousands working for you, and it is from a resource that is finite and non-renewable, then it is probably wasteful.
Found it: https://www.stuartmcmillen.com/comic/energy-slaves/
Every resource is finite and non-renewable considering even the sun will go out at some point. Let's not bemoan the use of fossil-sourced energy until the point we level up in technology and can master less polluting sources. After all, fossil fuels have fostered more human life than climate change will ever destroy.
That remains to be seen.
And Big Oil worked very hard for decades at smothering any effort to develop less polluting alternative energy sources. They’re still doing it by suing the EU for mandating laws to reduce fossil fuel usage.
This will force people into reducing its use. Companies producing more efficient or alternatively-powered technology will gain the most. So, the market would address this.
On top of this, OPEC playing games is also prompting importers to find alternatives.
But I am indeed worried about the impact on the environment.
Not only that, current "proven reserves" are based on what's economical to extract. As the price of oil rises, we will find more oil.
At the point it causes eventual human extinction.
> “Of course it sounds incredibly stupid to transport snow by helicopter. But that was the only way we could save the slalom and combined races. The effort was absolutely justified.” He referred to the very high added value for the entire region.
We don't need to resettle everyone in the Phoenix because air conditioning uses too much energy...
No because we've accepted rich flying their private jets and lecturing everyone about how they are causing climate change by driving their suv to drop off kids at school.
This isn't any weirder than that.
Well, they're doing it to keep their income and profits coming. A major part of it in fact - probably half the yearly income.
Since you're probably from a western country, how much of an income cut and inconvenience when driving/commuting were you prepared to take to combat climate change until now?
Because that's really what you're asking here - are you going to take a 50% paycut and stop using your ICE vehicle forever?
Only if everyone else does. I.e. a fossil fuel tax so high that it renders helicoptering snow for recreational activities untenable.
Most people I know just commute on bike or public transport.
source on heatwave: https://grist.org/climate/europe-kicks-off-2023-with-a-recor...
When Europe is as hot as Asia during summers and as hot as Asia during respective winters that clearly proves beyond a shadow of doubt that global warming is real
Because Trump had said "it is snowing here" to justify xlimate denying. They have extreme polar vortex over there so they haven't yet faced the severity of climate change, I think.
I feel like this isn't the clearest phrasing. :) Perhaps you meant anti-anti-climate change (clunky) or anti-climate change awareness or similar?
In the meantime, the latitudes at which you can economically grow wine grapes are gradually moving northwards.
If you sort https://www.worldometers.info/co2-emissions/co2-emissions-pe... by per capita, you see that the biggest emitters are:
- Gulf states which run on oil
- Microstates/islands which have very inefficient generation
- and then Estonia is worse than the US, because it still has lots of Soviet-era coal generation.
Most of Europe has per-capita emissions about half those of the US, comparable to those of China. The US has bad emissions because of cheap petrol and over 200GW of coal fired power stations.
The most exclusive ones are probably St. Moritz, Zermatt and Lech, not so sure about Gstaad.
I'll be spending a week skiing in Austria next week and altogether it's cheaper than a week of skiing in Colorado.
Blows my mind. When I skied there in college in 2012, they were roughly 60-80USD per day and they had free ski between 1500-1700.
https://www.skibanff.com/ski-ride/passes/day-passes
Half price
- install an AC unit on the roof of a university building
- move building material from one side of campus to the other side
- extract dead trees from a small forest with an extensive network of roads and paths
- plant trees in the middle of campus. Which lead to this fantastic exchange with my then 2 yo: "look papa, a flying tree!" "What do you mean?" "There!" "Oh, you are right. A flying tree. Do you want a banana?"
My pet theory is that given the high wages in Switzerland, it quickly becomes cheaper to rent a chopper for two hours then to get a crane built, operated and unbuilt.
I just got back from skiing in Vail Colorado. People in Europe may object to flying snow to the mountain, but they certainly do not object to flying themselves to the snow.
In the shared gondola and lift rides, people speaking English within their groups were the minority. I am not complaining, it was a wonderful time and I really enjoyed meeting and talking to people from all over the place!
FYI - the storm systems that are flooding California are producing an epic winter for the ski resorts in the western USA. It's been at least 20 years since I've seen anything this nice! It's really not a surprise that people are coming from around the world to experience it.