4) Whiteout: The 2017/2018 season

A Personal Account

I'm relatively new to skiing. I've only skied a handful of times and have only been on one proper skiing getaway. My journey, unlike most others', began in June 2017, in the Midlands. In practise for the planned university ski trip to Val Thorens in late December, a day of skiing on the Milton Keynes indoor slope got me into it, and it's safe to say that I completely fell in love. I couldn't wait for the opportunity to give it a go on real snow! 

I was, however, a little bit worried. Although in October/November time last year I hadn't researched this blog, I was generally aware of the 'it's getting warmer so there'll be less snow' idea. The 2014/15 and 2015/16 seasons both got off to poor starts in the Alps, so I wasn't sure if there would be much snow for our ski trip. Friends who had been to Val Thorens the previous year were frustrated with the lack of snow, and all the evidence pointed to skiing conditions become gradually worse over the coming years.

Fortunately, this season appeared to be somewhat an anomaly. Regular dumpings of snow had been falling since early November, meaning that by mid-December, there was plenty of snow on the ground for us to enjoy.

Stunning conditions above Méribel Mottaret in the Three Valleys Ski Area, France, during December 2017 - taken by yours truly.

To give you an idea of the coverage, in the 2016/17 season, in late December, Val Thorens had received 131cm of snow on upper slopes, and 56cm of snow on lower slopes. This is the thickness of the snow coverage on the ground, not the amount of snow that fell in that period of time. In contrast, in December 2017, we were skiing on 270cm of upper slope snow and 200cm of lower slope snow – a massive difference. 

This trend has continued right through the season so far, with conditions thought to be the best in 20 years, according to regular skiers. Amongst growing concern that this really was a downward spiral for snow conditions in the Alps, this year’s season has been a welcomed contrast. Today (25/02/2018), there are 290cm of snow on the upper slopes of Val Thorens and 244cm of snow on the lower slopes – very good conditions even for the middle of winter. 

Is this season actually an anomaly? Is it just a one off? Or is it the beginning of a change many have not predicted? Are the Alps trying to fight back against human-induced climate change? Unfortunately due to the nature of scientific research, there have been no studies published that assessing this season's Alps climate as of yet, so it's very difficult to do anything other than speculate. 

One thing is for sure. I chose a great time to go skiing! 

3) Rain on Snow in the Alps

Rainy Days

Furthering yesterday's post, I read a paper from 2016 on the topic on rain-on-snow (ROS) events. Although the paper didn't specifically talk about skiing, a ROS event can have dramatic effects on increasing flooding further lower down the mountains. 

ROS events are events where precipitation falls as rain on to snow, which melts it due to the higher temperature of the water droplets than the snow. The resulting floods can have significant impacts on the downslope areas by dramatically increasing surface runoff, potentially damaging the economy by flooding settlements and businesses.

The paper (published 2016) found that in a valley in the Swiss Alps, ROS events increased surface runoff by 3 times (compared to a rain-only event) due to the amount of snow the rain melted when it fell, and had the potential to increase the levels of the river surveyed by 130mm. 

These ROS events are caused by rising temperatures. Usually, any precipitation at a certain high altitude would fall as snow, resulting in permanent snow cover throughout the winter. However, as temperatures increase, so does the height at which rain falls instead of snow. This can result in large scale floods, as well as reducing the thickness of the snow coverage. 

Although warmer temperatures do mean that the permanent snow line is rising higher in altitude (which would, in theory, decrease the levels of runoff coming from ROS events), the warmer temperatures also increase precipitation at higher altitudes, which results in an overall increase of runoff. So, unfortunately, the threat of ROS events grows as the climate warms.

Next Time

My personal experience of skiing is largely different to what this blog has so far described. In my next post I’ll be discussing the 2017/18 season and the stark contrast it’s been to the previous 20 or so years.   

2) The Effects of Climate Change on the Skiing Industry

Big Changes

The effects of climate change are already being seen across the Earth in almost every environment. The most significant changes occur in the most extreme climates, such as deserts, where desertification is swallowing up large swathes of the Earth's mid latitudes, such as the Sahel region of Africa. Also, in the Arctic, temperatures have been known to rise at between 1-1.25^oC per decade, nearly 4 times faster there than the global average. 

Climate change isalso having a significant impact on the Alps. Temperatures are rising there at almost twice the pace of the global average - around 2^oC in the last 120 years.

These rising temperatures have had growing consequences on its skiing industry: from 1960 to 2017, theAlpine skiing season has shortened by 38 days, as well as lowering the amount of snow that does arrive. 2015 and 2016 have been the two hottest years on record and the conditions on the slopes suffered, particularly in the early season – snow depth didn’t reach a satisfactory level in some resorts until mid-January.

Although a complete loss of snow coverage across the Alps may never occur, the warming climate is reducing the availability of snow in lower resorts by raising the snowline (the point where snow is permanent for the duration of winter) higher and higher. Some scientists say that a rise of only 0.3^oC in average winter temperature could result in a rise of 300m in the snowline in the Swiss Alps.

Coping?

It worries me that, with rising temperatures causing the rising of the snow line and lower snow depth for significant chunks of the season, it can at times be difficult to do the actual skiing bit of skiing. So, resorts have had to learn to adapt and cope.

Snow cannons creating small ribbons of white amongst naked, snowless mountain landscapes could become the norm in the future for skiers as Alpine temperatures rise. This image is taken in the Dolomiti Superski are, in Dolomites, North East Italy

Since the early 70s, in order to keep the lifts moving and skiers carving, resorts have to create thousands of tonnes of artificial snow across their area. Not only is this a seriously expensive thing to do, but the energy it takes to power hundreds of artificial snow cannons contributes further to the emissions that are changing the Alps climate (as well as the using a huge amount of water).

Skiing is an incredible money-spinner for the Alps, worth $70 billion per year. A skiing holiday (travel, accommodation, insurance, equipment hire, lift passes) can easily set a person back well over £1000, so it’s an expensive hobby. The impacts of climate change will only make skiing more expensive.

Policy for the Future

In terms of going forward, the French Alps are at the mercy of EU15 policy (the Kyoto Protocol), which set an EU-wide target of reducing their collective emissions by 8% (below the levels of 1990) by 2008-12. Specifically, France set their target to maintaining stable emissions, with a change of ±0% by 2012. 

This was achieved. Overall, the EU reduced its GHG output by 11.8% by 2012, with France achieved a reduction of 10% as its contribution, well below its target. This kind of progress is essential to save environments such as the Alps from significant change, and EU-wide targets lead by example in international climate change agreements that work.

Next Time

In my next post, I'll be mentioning a specific weather change proven to be caused by climate change, and I'll be looking at what will continue to happen with this weather event if things do not change.