Glaciers are vanishing, snow is melting and an industry is rethinking its future writes The Financial Times’ Tom Robbins.
“We took with us several peasants, some to be our guides and others to carry wine and provisions. In order to prevent those among us who were the most in wind from fatiguing the rest by pushing on too fast, we made the following rules… that he who led the way should go a slow and even pace; that whoever found himself fatigued or out of breath might call for a halt; and lastly, that whenever we found a spring we should drink some of our wine, mixed with water.
In 1909 a railway was opened to cater to the flood of visitors, in 1988 a cable car to take them from the viewpoint at Montenvers down to the surface of the glacier. There are now 1 million annual visitors. Trace your finger on the map up the glacier from Montenvers and towards the top of Mont Blanc and you will see the Bivacco Alberico, a climbers’ refuge at the Col de la Forche. Except the map is now out of date, like the steps unable to keep pace with the climate. Melting permafrost has made rockfalls more common across the Alps.
Even with snow still on the ground for months, a minor shortening of the season could make such resorts no longer viable – and rising energy prices, both for lifts and snow cannons have heaped on additional pressure. Sections of glaciers are also being wrapped up against the sun – Andermatt in Switzerland led the way in 2005 and numerous others have followed, including Verbier, Garmisch-Partenkirchen in Germany and Stubai in Austria.
In truth, though, none of this is a silver bullet. Artificial snow requires large amounts of power and water: according to the Eurac Research institute, each winter from 2007 to 2016, South Tyrol’s snow cannons used the equivalent of 6 to 12 per cent of the entire region’s drinking water and 2.9 to 5.4 per cent of its energy.
At Saalfelden-Leogang, an Austrian ski area at the relatively low altitude of 840 metres, major investment in mountain-biking trails as well as luxury spa hotels means the winter/summer split in visitor numbers has reached 50/50 . The advent of e-bikes has brought mountain biking to a far wider audience; participation in trail running is booming; hiking is enjoying a surge in popularity in mountain areas around the world. Ironically, the COVID-19 lockdowns seem to have helped, prompting widely recorded increases in participation in outdoor and wilderness activities. And even climate change itself is driving more people to the hills.
Instead, it will allow those without skis to cross over the Alps from Italy to Switzerland, year-round, and getting a close-up view of the Matterhorn as they go. As visitors enjoy the journey – perhaps stopping for picnics and walks en route, and marvelling at the view of crevasses and seracs through glass-bottomed gondolas – their luggage will be transported for them and will be waiting in their hotel rooms in Zermatt or Cervinia on the Italian side.
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