It was the last thing Simon Bissig, the manager of a ski resort, wanted to see as he arrived at a guest house in the Swiss Alps one day in January. The radiant log cabin must have been packed with skiers.
Instead, it was empty, and instead of snow-frosted windows, the panes were battered by rain.
Where guests would have been dining, marketing consultants reviewed plans for what has become a constant existential question: what could be made of a ski resort without enough snow?
“I think we have to see that something is dying,” said Michelle Furrer, the manager of the guesthouse, located on the same slope as the Sattel-Hochstuckli ski resort that Bissig operates. “We have to accept it, and then we can try to build and find something else.”
Last summer, many European countries suffered from severe drought and record heat. This year, some areas have already seen the highest winter temperatures ever recorded.
For Switzerland, the effects of climate change have been particularly alarming. The country is warming at more than twice the global average rate and its glaciers have lost 6 percent of their volume in the last year, Swiss authorities and a glacier monitoring group said.
The changes pose a risk to a Swiss ski industry that, by some estimates, generates about $5.5 billion a year. But in a country where almost everyone skis, the loss of snow is also a threat to national identity.
Local tabloids criticized ski resorts for desperate measures such as bringing in snow by helicopter and offering alternative entertainment such as goat excursions.
Elsewhere in the village of Sattel, Herrenboden, a rustic hotel nestled between the slopes, has operated exclusively as a ski chalet in the winter for decades.
However, Silvan and Julia Betschart, its managers, have turned the three-generation family-owned hotel and restaurant into a year-round destination, catering to hikers in the warmer months.
In the German Alps, the Alpine Ski World Cup canceled some events because rain had ruined groomed slopes.
In Sattel, Thomas Schmid sold his father’s herd of traditional Alpine cattle and bought goats. He and his sisters opened a restaurant and store, Blüemlisberg. They invite the children of tourists to play with the goats and hikers to end their hikes in the mountains in their restaurant with goat cheese fondue.
“I’m from here, it also hurts me to think that we can’t ski in this place anymore,” Schmid said. “But people are starting to accept it. This climate is changing, so we have to, too.”
By: ERIKA SOLOMON
BBC-NEWS-SRC: http://www.nytsyn.com/subscribed/stories/6545263, IMPORTING DATE: 2023-01-25 21:40:07
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