On thin ice: three strategies to help you enjoy Australia's snow season more sustainably

The Guardian

15 hours ago

As someone who has visited the snow for holidays since childhood, I'm sure I'm not alone in feeling increasingly uneasy about a once-cherished pastime.
For nature lovers, skiing offers a fantastic opportunity to appreciate the alpine environment – but it's a carbon-intensive activity and the industry that surrounds it is causing negative climate impacts.
In Australia, on our current emissions trajectory, ski seasons will be between 44 and 55 days shorter by 2050, according to a report last month by the Australian National University. Ski resorts around the world are increasingly relying on artificial snow making – a process that uses vast amounts of water and energy, creating an unsustainable and counterproductive cycle for winter sports.
Like most climate impacts there's a limit to how much individuals can do, and structural change is needed. But there are still meaningful steps we can take when visiting the snowfields to make our trips more sustainable.
According to Cam Walker, a veteran environmental campaign manager for Friends of the Earth Australia and longtime skier, there are tangible things we can do to reduce our carbon footprint.
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After many years of enjoying groomed runs in Australian resorts, Walker says he now mostly prefers cross and backcountry skiing, which don't require as much infrastructure and offer greater exposure to nature away from the crowds.
He recommends people consider travelling to the snow using public transport, which cuts costs, unclogs alpine roads and lowers carbon emissions. There are train and bus services connecting cities including Wangaratta in Victoria's north-east to resorts including Mount Buller and Falls Creek, while the Snowy Mountains bus service links Jindabyne with Perisher and Thredbo in New South Wales.
If you prefer to drive, consider ride sharing – most resorts have Facebook pages where you can organise a lift and some have ride sharing pages. If you want to fly to international snowfields, think about replacing an annual pilgrimage with fewer, longer trips.
Another option is to rent your equipment rather than buying it – especially if it's your first time out on the slopes.
Walker says one of thechallenges in reducing the environmental impact of tourism is that many people go into holiday mode – turning heating up to full, not recycling and even littering.
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If you carry a reusable cup in your normal life, do so in the ski fields, too, and take advantage of the recycling facilities many resorts now offer, with well-marked bins around the mountain. At Mount Hotham, for example, the resort has a 'living bin' program to properly recycle food scraps, which is estimated to account for 50% of its waste.
And some resorts offer carbon-intensive extras including helicopter or snowmobile rides into backcountry areas. These should be avoided.
Auden Schendler, the author of the book Terrible beauty: Reckoning with climate complicity and rediscovering our soul and a former senior vice-president of Aspen Skiing Company, says the ski industry has largely dodged the hard work to be done on climate up until now by focusing on modest operational tweaks and putting the responsibility on individuals.
'Instead, what resorts should do is publicly and loudly use their voice, power, influence and media play to advocate for policy changes at the province and federal level,' he says. 'This includes publicly lobbying and discussing the threat of climate change and the need for major policy solutions, like fees on carbon, incentives for clean power, and so forth.'
Walker agrees, arguing that skiers should be applying pressure on resorts. 'While some globally owned resorts have done a great job of reducing their emissions by shifting to renewable energy, most in Australia have not,' he says. 'Ask questions when you book your holiday – are the lifts and snow making running off green electricity? If not, why not?
'If people ask these hard questions and apply significant consumer pressure, resort management will need to respond.'