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How ski is made - material, manufacture, making, history, used, parts, steps, industry, machine, History

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Bone skis were attached to the wearer via crude leather thongs, and early skiers proceeded without the benefit of poles. The use of skis evolved from an efficient means of winter transportation into a military tool with the Battle of Oslo in 1200, when Norwegian scouts were sent on skis to investigate the Swedish enemy camp.

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About 10,000 years ago: With the retreat of glaciers after the last Ice Age, elk and reindeer begin migrating northward from Central Asia. Stone Age hunters follow the herds. They use snowshoes and skis when hunting -- these implements make the hunters faster over snow than elk and deer can move.

About 6,000 years ago: Skiing is well established across the Eurasian arctic regions. Archaelogical evidence is strong that hunters used skis from Norway to northwestern Russia.

16th century: First mentions of skiing in European literature, usually in reference to the "Scridfinns" ("Skiing Finns" or Lapps), the people who called themselves Saami.

18th century: Military units across Scandinavia have organized brigades of ski troops. First organized military competitions. Russian trappers bring skis to Alaska.

1843- First newspaper reference to an organized cross-country ski race, in Tromso, Norway.

1840s- Sondre Norheim, of Morgedal, Telemark, discovers the perfect heel strap, cleverly entwined shoots of the birch tree root, with enough stiffness to provide sufficient control of the ski to steer it and enough elasticity to stay snugly around the heel to keep the toe in the toestrap even going off a jump, making possible both modern downhill and ski-jumping. (HerW1996 p7)

1866-In a competition conducted by the Centralforeigning, or Central Ski Association in the Norwegian capital Christiania (now called Oslo), Sondre Norheim and his fellow Telemarkers demonstrate what is later called the telemark turn and the Christiania skidded stop turn. (Ski/R 1983 p33) (Her W1996 p7)

1868-Steam trains begin carrying mail, passengers and skiers into the mountains in Europe and North America.

1870-Sondre Norheim popularizes the first modern sidecut ski, the "Telemark ski," setting the basic pattern followed for a century thereafter, producing a narrow-waisted ski that flexed more readily when edged, facilitating turns in soft snow. (Friedl )

1879-First North American ski manufacturing undertaken by Norwegian immigrant Martin A. Strand in Minnesota.

1882-Norske Ski Club, Berlin, New Hampshire, first modern ski club in America, is organized by resident Norwegians to remain oldest U.S. ski club with a continuous history. (Amski 1966 page 445)

1890-Publication of Paa Ski Over Grønland by Norwegian explorer Fridtjof Nansen, detailing his pioneer 1888 traverse of southern Greenland, on skis dragging sledges for 300 miles, using oakwood skis with three grooves, using one long stick for part of the journey and two sticks on the inland ice. (Lunn 1952 p179)

1896-Retired school teacher Mathias Zdarsky of Lilienfeld, Austria, a village 90 miles west of Vienna, publishes the first book, Lillienfeld Skilaufer Technik, on the methodical use of the double stem brake and the stem turn, with the use of one long pole, in Alpine skiing for the ascent and descent of steep mountain sides. (Amski 1966 p445)

1905-National Ski Association founded at Ishpeming, Michigan with Carl Tellefsen, former jumper and head of the Ishpeming Ski Club, elected first president, following the first national jumping championship at Ishpeming. (Amski 1966 p445 )

1908-First mechanical ski tow, powered by a water mill, built by Rober Winkelhalder at his hotel in Germany's Schwarzwald region.

1910-First International Ski Congress is held at Christiania, Norway, an organization which became the forerunner of the Federation Internationale de Ski, the international ruling body of skiing. (Amski 1966 p446)

1910-In January, Johannes Schneider, the ski guide at the Hotel Post in St.Anton, Austria, since 1907 at 17 years of age, created the stem christie with an up-movement to close the skis in the turn in order to complete turns more easily, producing a sliding turn; its use later extended to all conditions as the expert turn that stood atop an integrated ski technique that began with the double stem brake or snowplow, and progressed through the single-stem to the stem christie, the basis for what became known as the Arlberg Technique. (Friedl) (Fairlie pp71-72)

1911-C.A. Lund, St. Paul, Minnesota founds a ski factory, later called the Northland Ski Company. Its hickory skis dominated the market for another 30 years. (Amski 1966 p446)

1911-First run of the world's first downhill classic, the Roberts of Kandahar Cup, run over the Plaine Morte Glacier in Montana, Switzerland: winner, Cecil Hopkinson. (Friedl ) (Lunn 1952 p182)

1918-Johannes Schneider, returned from war service to the Hotel Post and, having taught thousands of WWI mountain troops to ski, used that disciplined structure to teach a growing influx of, mostly Swiss and British, his new technique.(Amski 1966 p446)

1920-First paid instructor in a U.S. ski school, Norwegian Henrik Jacobsen, hired at the Lake Placid Club, Lake Placid, N.Y. (Friedl )

1920-24- Hannes Schneider formalized his technique into an instructional system which became known as the Arlberg Technique. (Amski 1966 p446)

1921-First modern slalom race, the Alpine Ski Challenge Cup, held at Mürren, Switzerland, on Jan. 6, after rules set down by Arnold Lunn: first, J.A. Joannides. The following fall, the first systematic exposition, complete with diagrams of two-gate slalom, was published was published by Lunn in the British Ski Year Book. (Lunn Story1952 p183)

1921-German documentary film maker Arnold Fanck shows history's first instructional film, Wunder des Schneeschuhs, based on the Arlberg System and demonstrated by "Hannes" Schneider and it has a successful premiere in Freiberg, Germany, Fanck's home town. (Amski 1966 p446)

1921-In a disagreement with Walter Schuler, proprietor of the Hotel Post, over his taking time off from his ski school to make movies with Dr. Arnold Fanck, Hannes Schneider separated his ski school from the Hotel Post and became a seminal independent ski school.

1922-United States Eastern Amateur Ski Association formed. (Amski 1966 p446 )

1924-First Olympic Winter Games held at Chamonix, France, with Nordic ski events only. (Amski 1966 p446) Norwegian Thorleif Haug becomes world's first triple-gold-medal winner: He won the 18-km and 50-km cross-country and Nordic combined. He also won the bronze medal in jumping; Norwegians took home 11 of the 12 gold medals. (CompXc Dial p229 )

1924-The International Ski Congress becomes a permanent organization, the Federation Internationale de Ski (FIS); Col. Ivar Holmquist is named first president. (Amski 1966 p446 -7-) (CompXc Dial p229 -5-) (Lunn 1952 p184 )

1925-NSA recognizes USEASA as an affiliate, and it later recognized the other regional ski organizations, forming a truly national organization. (Amski 1966 p446 )

1925-Hannes Schneider and Dr. Fanck publish The Wonders of Skiing (Wunder des Schneeschuhs), with stills from the movie as illustration, sell 100,000 copies in first year, making it the most important and widely read book about skiing in history; translated into English in 1931. (Friedl ) (Ski/R 1983 p36)

1926-First ski shop in the United States opens in Boston under owner Oscar Hambro from Norway. (Amski 1966 p446)

1926-Rudolf Lettner, an amateur mountaineer from Salzburg, patents a segmented steel edge to help skis hold on icy terrain.

1927-On March 8, the first modern downhill race in the United States was run on Mt. Moosilauke, NH, by the Dartmouth Outing Club. It was won by Charles N. Proctor, of Dartmouth. (1942 ASA pp26-30)

1927-Otto Schniebs emigrates from Germany to Waltham, Mass. to become the first Arlberg instructor in the U.S.; becomes coach of the Harvard team, official instructor for the Appalachian Mountain Club based in Boston, then history's most successful college ski team coach beginning in 1930 at Dartmouth College, finally setting up an early ski school at Lake Placid in 1936.

1928-On March 9, the first American slalom set by Prof. Charles A. Proctor at Dartmouth College under Arnold Lunn's experimental FIS rules was won by freshman Bob Baumrucker. (Hooke p231)

1928-Arnold Lunn and Hannes Schneider organize the first open international alpine combined-the Arlberg-Kandahar, March 31-April 1 at St. Anton, Austria, won by Austrian Benno Leubner. (Lunn 1952 p185 -7-) (Ski/R 1983 p36 ) (Amski 1966 p446 )

1928-Second Winter Olympics at St. Moritz held without alpine events, but FIS agrees to let The Ski Club of Great Britain organize FIS-sanctioned downhill and slalom races; U.S. Team, captained by Rolf Monsen, does creditably but wins no medals. (Friedl ) (Lunn 1952 p185)

1929-Peckett's-on-Sugar Hill ski school, near Franconia, NH, founded by Katharine "Kate" Peckett to become the first resort based ski school in the U.S. Two German instructors taught that first year followed, in 1930, by the Duke Dimitri von Leuchtenberg. In 1931, Sig Buchmayr joined him and became school director the following year when the Duke left. Kate Peckett brought in more European instructors, e.g. the Marquis Nicholas degli Albizzi, or just "The Markee," and Austrians Harold Suiter, Harold Paumgarten and Kurt Thalhammer to teach the Arlberg system. Among pupils were Nelson Rockefeller, Averell Harriman, Lowell Thomas, Minot Dole and Roger Peabody. (Adler Congress paper p17)

1929-First ski train in the United States runs from Boston to Warner, New Hampshire. (Amski 1966 p447)

1930-At the Univerity Winter Games at Davos, Switzerland, Austrian racers use the steel Lettner edge for the first time. They make razor-sharp turns and win easily. Alpine racing is transformed.

1931-First FIS World Alpine Championships at Mürren, Switzerland, Swiss racers Walter Prager wins the downhill and David Zogg wins the slalom; British racer Esme Mackinnon wins both women's downhill and slalom. (Amski 1966 p447)

1932-Third Olympic Winter Games held at Lake Placid, New York, with downhill and slalom still excluded. (Amski 1966 p447)

1932-North America's first rope tow is invented by Alex Foster and installed at Shawbridge, Quebec. It is powered by a Dodge automobile, jacked up on blocks, with a rope looped around a wheel rim. (Ski/R 1983 p37 ) (Amski 1966 p447 )

1933-Laminated ski construction patented simultaneously by Ostbye-Splitkein in Norway and Anderson & Thompson in Seattle.

1933-First National Downhill Championship is held at Mt. Moosilauke, New Hampshire, and won by Henry (Bem) Woods. (Amski 1966 p447 )

1933-Civilian Conservation Corps under Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt cuts ski trails. Vermont CCC director Montpelier's Perry Merrill cut the first trails on Mt. Mansfield and became the Father of Vermont Skiing. (MAD 1993 )

1934-January 28 saw the first rope tow installed in the U.S. by Bob and Betty Royce, proprietors of the White Cupboard Inn, in Woodstock, VT. The Royces made sketches of Alec Foster's first rope tow in Shawbridge, Quebec, and employed David Dodd, a local mechanic, to construct it for them on a sidehill owned by farmer Clinton Gilbert which the Royces leased for the winter. The tow, originally called the Ski-Way, consisted of a continuous loop of rope running over a series of wheels and was driven by the rear wheel of a Model A Ford. Bob Bourdon, a Woodstock native, was its first rider. Wallace "Bunny" Bertram took it over for the second season, improved the operation, renamed it the Ski Tow and eventually moved it to The Gully and then Suicide Six. (interviews Bob Bourdon, Betty Royce, et al)

1934-Ernest Constam, a Zurich engineer, builds world's first J-bar, debuting in Davos in December, it is converted to a T-bar in 1936 (Ski/R 1983 p37) (Her v8-4 1996 p 15)

1934-Mt. Mansfield Club forms at Stowe, Vt. to encourage use of trails cut on the mountain by CCC. (Friedl )

1934-Limited production of a solid aluminum ski by M. Vicky in France.

1935-First U.S. National Downhill and Slalom championships at Mt. Rainier, Washington; open combined category won by Austrian Hannes Schroll of Salzburg, Austria; amateur combined by Dick Durrance. (Amski 1966 p447 )

1935-The first Kandahar cable binding holding the skier's heel to the ski is introduced. (Amski 1966 p447 )

1935-The first overhead cable lift, a J-bar is built at Oak Hill in Hanover, New Hampshire, by the Dartmouth Outing Club. (Amski 1966 p448 -7-) (Friedl )

1935-The first U.S. Winter Sports Show, commonly referred to as ski shows, opened in the Boston Garden followed, in 1936, by New York's first such show in Madison Square Garden. It drew an estimated 80,000 people and turned away thousands more.

1935-First European T-bar: the J-bar at Davos, is converted to a T-bar.

1936-First issue of Ski magazine is published in Seattle by Alf Nydin. Ski/R 1983 p38)(Amski 1966 p448)

1936-First Arlberg ski school at Mt. Mansfield with the arrival of Sepp Ruschp from Austria (Amski 1966 p448 ) under a contract with the Mt. Mansfield Club, starts teaching on a rope tow set up on the Toll House slope; (Friedl), becomes the first Certified Ski Instructor to graduate from the U.S. Examinations held at Woodstock, Vermont. (Ski/R 1983 p40 )

1936-Sun Valley, built by Averell Harriman as a Union Pacific project, opens with world's first chairlifts put in on Dollar and Proctor hills, designed by Union Pacific Engineer Jim Curran, copied from the banana lifts used in Central America to load United Fruit cargo vessels. (Friedl)

1936-The Third Winter Games holds world's first Olympic alpine events, a downhill and slalom combined, at Garmisch. Toni Seelos, barred as a professional, foreruns slalom and is timed 12 seconds faster that the winner, Franz Pfnuer of Germany. Birger Ruud of Norway wins the downhill of the combined using his jumping skis. (Amski 1966 p448 ) (Friedl)

1936-Benno Rybizka, a top instructor from Hannes Schneider's St.Anton ski school, brought to Jackson, NH, by Carroll Reed to head up Reed's new Eastern Slope Ski School headquartered in what is now the Wildcat Tavern. Mary Bird (Young) was European trained and Rybizka's top assistant at Jackson. (Rybizka, Reed & Young interviews, local records)

1936-Ski survey of Aspen-Ashcroft area by Andre Roche, Ted Ryan, Billy Fiske, principals in the Highland Lodge, the first ski lodge in Roaring Fork Valley; Roche leads Aspen citizens in forming the Roaring Fork Winter Sport Club, later the Aspen Ski Club (which builds a six passenger boat tow in a clearing at the bottom of Aspen Mt., built from an old mine hoist and a truck engine). (Skico, 1986)

1937-First chairlift installed in the East at Belknap, New Hampshire. (Amski 1966 p448)

1937-Dick Durrance wins first Harriman Cup race at Sun Valley. (Amski 1966 p448 )

1938-Mt. Tremblant, Quebec opens in February with the first Canadian chairlift, built by Joseph Ryan at Mt. Tremblant, Quebec. (Amski 1966 p448) (Friedl)

1938-First certification examination of ski instructors held at Woodstock, Vermont. Sepp Ruschp becomes the first certified instructor in the United States. (Amski 1966 p448 )

1938-America's second funicular, the Skimobile, installed on Mt. Cranmore at North Conway, New Hampshire. (Ski/R 1983 p40 ) (Amski 1966 p448 ); first Aerial Tramway in the United States is installed at Cannon Mountain, Franconia, New Hampshire. (Ski/R 1983 p40 ) (Friedl) (Amski 1966 p448)

1938-First U.S. Ski Patrol established at Stowe under Minot Dole as chairman of national committee.(Amski 1966 p448) (Friedl)

1938-Chairlift opens at Alta, Utah, constructed from mining hoist parts, financed by Salt Lake businessmen.

1938-Dave McCoy sets up rope tow at Mammoth Mt., California. (Friedl)

1939-Hannes Schnieder arrives in the United States and takes over leadership of the ski school at Mt. Cranmore. Schneider also developed the first groomed slope by cutting down trees and completely clearing the south slope of Mt.Cranmore. (Amski 1966 p448)

1939-Otto Lang presents the first American theater release ski film, Ski Flight at Radio City Music Hall on the same bill with the premiere ofSnow White and the Seven Dwarfs. (Ski/R 1983 p40)

1939-Hjalmar Hvam invents the world's first useful release binding.(Amski 1966 p448 -7-) (Friedl)

1939-Sugar Bowl in Norden, California opened by John Wiley and Hannes Schroll. (Friedl)

1940-Alta Lodge is built by the Denver and Rio Grande; in 1941, James Laughlin buys the lift and the lodge, hires Dick Durrance as manager, lodge keeper and ski school director. (Friedl)

1940-T-bar, considered the first in America, is installed at Pico Peak, Vermont. (Ski/R 1983 p40)

1940-Second single chair in the East installed at Stowe, Vt. (Ski/R 1983 p41)

1940-Friedl Pfeifer installs three chairlifts to open Mt. Baldy at Sun Valley. (Friedl)

1941-Big Bromley opens under Fred Pabst in Vermont, with two J-bars (Friedl)

1941-Fred Willoughby leads Aspen Ski club in cutting the country's most expert trail, Roch Run, part way up Aspen Mt. after the design drawn by Andre Roch. (Friedl)

1942-Tenth Mountain Division activated at Camp Hale, Pando, Colorado; National Ski Patrol named an official recruiting organization and Minot Dole rounds up 2000 volunteers and sends them to Pando in two months. (Friedl)

1945-Friedl Pfeifer meets with the City Council at Aspen and outlines the plan for creating a top international resort at Aspen. Later that year Pfeifer opens the Friedl Pfeifer Ski School, with partners Percy Rideout and John Litchfield as co-directors, and only instructors.(Friedl ) Paepcke meets with Friedl Pfeifer and plans begin for Aspen's first ski lift. (Skico, 1986)

1946-Aspen Skiing Corporation formed under Walter Paepcke, replacing Pfeifer's original Aspen Ski Company. (Amski 1966 p448 ) American Steel and Wire signs contract with Pfeifer to build #1 Chair (Friedl). Chair #1 opens, Dec. 14 (Skico 1986) Dec 15 (Ski/R 1983 p41). First lodges, bars, restaurants open: Skimore Lodge, The Alpine Inn, Crystal City Inn and the Red Onion; Aspen Ski Club holds 1946 SMRSA meet (Friedl) and the first Roch Cup in March.

1946-first Pomalift developed in Europe by Jean Pomagalski. (Amski 1966 p448)

1946-P-Tex base invented by the Swiss firm Muller and Co. (Ski/R 1983 p41) Dynamic comes out with a Cellulix base. (Her V8-1 1996)

1948 -The first national periodical, Ski magazine evolves out of merger of Ski Illustrated (the changed name of the original Ski magazine),Ski News and Western Skiing. The new magazine is published by William T. Eldred. (Amski 1966 p449 )

1948-First chairlift in Midwest built at Boyne Mountain. (Amski 1966 p449 )

1948-Gretchen Fraser becomes the first American to win Olympic ski medals - a gold in the special slalom and a silver in the Alpine combined on February 5 at the Winter Games in St. Moritz, Switzerland. (Ski/R 1983 p42) (Amski 1966 p449 )

1949-Mad River Glen, Vermont; Squaw Valley, California, both opened. (Amski 1966 p449 )

1949-Howard Head markets the aluminum Head Standard, the first commercially successful aluminum ski. (Ski/R 1983 p43)

1950-First U.S. FIS World Championships at Aspen (alpine) and Lake Placid, New York. (jumping) and Rumford, Maine (cross-country). (Amski 1966 p449 ) Feb 12-18: races at Aspen held under the direction of Dick Durrance and Dave Bradley; Pfeifer coaches the U.S. women's team. (Friedl)

1952-First artificially-made snow is made at Grossinger's resort in New York; Fahnestock, New York, two years later, becomes first ski area to make snow on regular basis. (Amski 1966 p449)

1952-Andrea Mead captures gold medals in slalom and giant slalom at the Winter Olympic games in Oslo. (Ski/R 1983 p44 ) This is the first Winter Olympics at which giant slalom is recognized as a separate event. (Amski 1966 p449 -7-) First women's cross-country in Winter Olympics, Oslo, 10 km. (CompXc Dial p229)

1954-Ski Hall of Fame dedicated at Ishpeming, Michigan. (Amski 1966 p449)

1955-Henke Speed Fit buckle boots appear. (Ski/R 1983 p44 )

1957-The first useful aluminum ski poles are made by Scott. (Ski/R 1983 p46

1958-Buddy Werner becomes first American male to win a major European combined, the Lauberhorn. (Amski 1966 p449)

1958-First U.S. gondola lift installed at the Wildcat area in New Hampshire. (Amski 1966 p450)

1958-Clif Taylor, considered the inventor of Graduated Length Method (GLM) graduates his first pupil, Ann Hedges, on a pair of 100 cm skis. (Ski/R 1983 p46)

1958-Sugarbush opens in Warren, Vermont; Damon and Sarah Gadd, founders. All-day lift ticket was $5.50. (MAD 1993)

1958-Buttermilk and Aspen Highlands open on Thanksgiving, Nov. 26 making Aspen the country's largest ski resort. (Frield ) (Skico, 1986)

1960-Eighth Olympic Winter Games at Squaw Valley, California. first alpine Games in the U.S.; Penny Pitou wins silver medals in downhill and giant slalom, and Betsy Snite wins a silver medal in slalom. France's Jean Vuarnet wins men's downhill on metal skis. (Amski 1966 p450)

1960-Kneissl, Sailer and Plymold market the first commercially successful fiberglass skis. (Ski/R 1983 p47)

1961-Ski Industries of America (SIA), first nationwide trade organization, opens New York City offices. (Amski1966 p450)

1961-Instructors form Professional Ski Instructors of America (PSIA) in Whitefish, Montana, under Bill Lash. All division demonstration teams show final technical forms of skiing. (Ski/R 1983 p47) (Amski 1966 p450 )

1962-Chuck Ferries becomes first American to win a European classic gate race, the Hahnenkamm slalom. (Amski 1966 p450)

1963-First U.S. resort association, the National Ski Areas Association (NSAA) founded. (Amski 1966 p450)

1964-Billy Kidd and Jimmy Heuga become the first American men to win Olympic medals for alpine skiing, being second and third, respectively, in the slalom of the ninth Olympic Winter Games at Innsbruck, Austria. Jean Saubert ties for second in the giant slalom and places third in the slalom. (Amski 1966 p450)

1964-The first Lange all plastic buckle boots are commercially available. (Ski/R 1983 p49)

1967-The first World Cup Competitions staged. Credited with the Cup's inception are U.S. Ski Team Coach Bob Beattie, French Ski Team Coach Honore Bonnet and French journalist Serge Lang. (Ski/R 1983 p49)

1980-The 13th Winter Olympics held in Lake Placid, New York, for second time; third time in USA. Swede Thomas Wassberg wins 15-km race by one hundreth of a second, closest ever in cross-country ski racing. (CompXc Dial p231)

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About 10,000 years ago: With the retreat of glaciers after the last Ice Age, elk and reindeer begin migrating northward from Central Asia. Stone Age hunters follow the herds. They use snowshoes and skis when hunting -- these implements make the hunters faster over snow than elk and deer can move.

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The start of the 2015/16 season wasn't the best in terms of snowfall with many resorts being forced to postpone their opening. The lack of snow at the start of the season has highlighted how impressive the snow-making infrastructure of the Three Valleys is. While other ski resorts suffered the Three Valleys was boasting that it had 70% of runs open and they were in pretty good shape.

When the Three Valleys opened up in full on the first week in December the last snow had fallen three weeks earlier and the temperatures were not consistently low. However, on opening day Méribel looked like this.

And after two weeks they looked just as good with the run down to La Tania being one of the best maintained slopes in the area.

So why is the snow cover so good?

The Three Valles has made a huge commitment to snow making. It currently has 2186 snow cannons located across one third of it's 327 runs, which are attend to by a 72 strong fleet of piste bashers. The snow making starts long before the lifts open for the season as the cannons get turned on as soon at the temperature drops low enough. It is also rumoured the Méribel alone spends half a million pounds a year just making snow.

When we had a chat with the manager from Méribel Alpina, the company that runs the mountain, he was keen to point out that part of their promise to skiers coming to the area is to always have the highest number of runs open in Europe. We thought we would test this by comparing 29th of December 2015 in Méribel to five of Europe's most popular resorts and looked at the percentage of lifts they had open.

Booking a ski holiday at the beginning of the winter season has always been a gamble and this had been reflected in the prices of December ski holidays. But the work that goes on behind the scenes at in the Three Valleys means that snow is as guaranteed as it can be throughout the season. Take a look below at our snow report from the end of December and you can see that despite there being no snow since the resort opened the piste were in pretty good shape.

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Three Valleys Commitment to Snow Making - Alpine Action Blog

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The start of the 2015/16 season wasn't the best in terms of snowfall with many resorts being forced to postpone their opening. The lack of snow at the start of the season has highlighted how impressive the snow-making infrastructure of the Three Valleys is. While other ski resorts suffered the Three Valleys was boasting that ...

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Lost Village - Salomon Freeski TV S8 E07

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Val de la Clarée is one of the last quiet corners of the French Alps, but it could have been very different. In the 1970's a proposed highway and tunnel threatened to open the valley up to development, but the local farmers and residents protested.

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Artificial snow harming alpine environment

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Artificial snow harming alpine environment

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For amateur skier Ulrich Strasser, artificial snow is a good thing. "It's thicker and firmer, and therefore better for carving," he says.

But in his role as a scientist, he takes a very different view of the artificial white stuff. Covering entire slopes with manmade powder consumes an enormous amount of energy and water. And for Strasser, a geographer at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, that's a mountainous problem in a time of climate change.

Increasing numbers of ski resorts in the Alps have installed snow cannons so that the euros keep rolling in during snow-poor winters. In Austria, artificial snow is already used on 50 percent of slopes, says Christian Rixen of the Swiss Federal Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research in Davos, Switzerland. In southern Tyrol, the figure is even higher, at 59 percent, while in the Alps as a whole it's 30 percent.

Artificial snow and its consequences is one of the many climate change-related topics that scientists are currently discussing at the European Geosciences Union annual conference this week in Vienna. Researchers have been aware of the problem for some time. A year and a half ago, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) released a study on the consequences of global warming on the Alps. The worrying conclusion was that, in a worst-case scenario, two-thirds of all ski areas would be threatened.

Bavarian areas could be hit the hardest: Even a rise in temperature of just 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) would mean that 87 percent of slopes would no longer be classified as "snow reliable." The OECD defines snow-reliable areas as those that have around 30 centimeters (12 inches) of snow cover on at least 100 days in the year. In the Alps there are currently around 600 such areas. But an average temperature increase of just 1 degree Celsius (1.8 degrees Fahrenheit) could reduce that number to 500, the OECD warns. Every 1-degree Celsius increase after that would spell doom for a further 100 ski resorts.

"Everything under 1,000 meters (3,300 feet) is hit first," says hydrologist Carmen de Jong of the University of Savoy in France. Then areas above 1,200 meters start getting problems, she explains. Winter sport resorts don't have many options for coping with climate change. "The entire infrastructure, for example the lifts, would have to be rebuilt higher up the mountain -- and that's extremely expensive," de Jong says.

At lower altitudes, the only hope is snow cannons, which in some areas run non-stop as soon as the temperature hits minus 3 degrees Celsius (27 degrees Fahrenheit). To avoid running out of snow, they pump out as much of the white stuff as possible. "Snow cannons have become more and more intelligent," says de Jong. For example, when it's cold enough but the wind is blowing too hard, the machines stay off -- perfect artificial-snow management.

But the effects of the massive artificial snow output are worrying scientists. "Artificial snow melts two to three weeks later (than normal snow)," says Christian Rixen of the Swiss Federal Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research. Adding to the worry is the fact that artificial snow melt contains more minerals and nutrients than regular melt water. One consequence of the different composition is an alteration of the natural ground covering, as plants with higher nutritional requirements suddenly begin to dominate.

The use of artificial snow also interferes with the millennia-old Alpine water table. Water for snow production has to be collected in manmade reservoirs over the course of the entire year. A considerable amount of that water evaporates over time or when the artificial snow is produced -- and is therefore lost. Moreover, manmade reservoirs created in the mountains change the underground water table, as their bottoms are watertight and do not allow water to seep back into the ground. Not only this, but because artificial snow takes longer to melt, the flow of water into the valleys is postponed.

Will the Tourists Go For It?

The appearance of many winter sport resorts will also change if the average temperature continues to climb. The only snow in some areas would be white strips of piste running down from the top of an otherwise green mountain to the ski lift base station at the bottom. "Will the tourists go for it?" asks Carmen de Jong. She ventures a prediction: In larger areas, artificial snow will be more readily accepted than in smaller ski resorts, she believes.

The question of whether to produce snow artificially or not is also an economic one. "It takes 15 to 20 years for snow cannons to pay for themselves," de Jong says. Researchers should therefore calculate the limits of artificial snow production, ideally for the entire Alpine region, she says. However, she admits she doesn't know what the results of those calculations would look like. "A cost-benefit analysis is difficult," she says, explaining that one reason is the uncertainty regarding exactly what the actual rise in temperatures in the coming decades will be.

De Jong expressly warns that an excessive dependence on snow cannons would disrupt the Alpine ecosystem: "You can't practice winter tourism at the expense of the summer."

Nevertheless, researchers believe that summer tourism will play an increasingly important role for winter resorts. "Davos currently makes 60 percent of its annual turnover in winter, and 40 percent in summer," Rixen says. That ratio will change in the future, probably in the direction of a 50:50 split.

De Jong doesn't think the forced shift towards summer tourism is such a bad thing: "In 20 or 30 years, people will be coming to the cool mountains instead of heading to the hot Mediterranean." There, global warming will have brought about extremely high temperatures, which are bad for tourism, she says. "If you look at it this way, climate change is also an opportunity for the Alps."

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A Slippery Slope: Artificial Snow Harming Alpine Environment, Researchers Warn - SPIEGEL ONLINE - International

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For amateur skier Ulrich Strasser, artificial snow is a good thing. "It's thicker and firmer, and therefore better for carving," he says. But in his role as a scientist, he takes a very different view of the artificial white stuff. Covering entire slopes with manmade powder consumes an enormous amount of energy and water.

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The Nasty Environmental Impact of Making Snow

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The Nasty Environmental Impact of Making Snow

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Impacts of a particularly damaging practice- snowmaking

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Pointing to the sacredness of the San Francisco Peaks north of Flagstaff, Arizona, a coalition of Native American tribes has been fighting the development and expansion of Arizona Snowbowl ski resort since 1979. It remains defiant, reports the New York Times, despite having suffered a key legal defeat this winter. A federal court ruled against the tribes in a nearly decade-old lawsuit that claims the ski resort's plans to use treated wastewater from Flagstaff's sewage system to make artificial snow for the resort would interfere with religious practices and mar the mountains.

Wait. The resort will use sewage to make snow? Technically, yes. That's why the story has garnered lots of attention. But recycling treated wastewater for applications that do not require potable water is not nearly as icky, nor as uncommon, as it might sound. This type of water is commonly used for irrigating golf courses and soccer fields, for example.

While Arizona Snowbowl would be the first resort in the U.S. to use 100 percent treated wastewater to make snow, it's a common practice in Europe and in parts of Australia, says Hunter Sykes, an environmental sustainability consultant who closely tracks the outdoor recreation industry and produced a 2007 documentary about the environmental impacts of rampant ski resort development called Resorting to Madness. "Most people who work with wastewater don't see this an issue, because it's not going to make people sick and, as far as we know, it's not going to contaminate flora or fauna," he says.

Not everyone is quite so comfortable, though, with the idea of using treated wastewater for snowmaking. Among the groups that oppose it, on the grounds that the water may contain chemical inputs from pharmaceuticals and other potentially hazardous hard-to-trace sources, include the Center for Biological Diversity. Sykes agrees that there is still much we don't understand about the chemical agents that persist in treated wastewater and how they could impact the ecosystems into which they're released, but says if it was up to him, he would use the treated wastewater.

Taylor McKinnon, public lands campaigns director for the Center for Biological Diversity points to a study that linked wastewater effluent released into a creek in Boulder, Colorado, with abnormal fish gender distributions. "There is an emerging and growing list of compounds [about which] we don't know the affects," he says, but we know that endocrine disruptors [in wastewater] will change fish sex ratios. This points to the need for additional research and more advanced water treatment."

But McKinnon and Sykes do agree on one thing: the real story here is the increase in snowmaking, industry wide, and the wider environmental impacts of making snow.

One can argue that for a ski resort in an arid landscape such as Arizona, reusing wastewater for snowmaking can be a much better alternative, environmentally speaking, than using increasingly scarce fresh water. In either case, other issues loom large. These include the energy required to pump the water, the quality of that water (even if it comes from "natural" sources), and the ways that artificial snowpacks change mountain landscapes.

ENERGY
In the Times story about Arizona Snowbowl, a forester with the U.S. Forest Service is quoted saying that climate change is making snowmaking increasingly necessary at ski resorts. That may be true, but the act of making snow where coal is used to generate the energy to make the snow is only exacerbating the situation.

"Burning coal to make snow is a self-destructive behavior for federal agencies and for outdoor recreation industry," says McKinnon.

The energy required to make snow will only increase if winters begin later and skew toward warmer or more erratic temperatures. "For a lot of [ski] areas, snowmaking is the biggest single expense, even before payroll," says Sykes.

Fortunately, many ski resorts are increasing the wind, solar and other types of renewable, clean-burning fuel they use for power generation. Plus, snowmaking equipment is increasingly energy efficient.

WATER
Ski resorts often make snow using nearby natural streams or lakes, but that doesn't mean the water is clean. Sykes points to how, in Colorado, water pulled for snowmaking from the Snake River is tainted with zinc, copper, lead and other metals that seep from old mining claims.

Even if water that is extracted for snowmaking is clean, the act of extracting it leads to other "externalities," he says. For one thing, pulling clean water upstream from sources of contamination, such as mining claims, removes the benefits of dilution that the water would have otherwise provided.

Reducing stream flow could have other consequences as well. "Another extraction issue is that you're removing sizable amounts of water from streams in the fall, which is a key time for aquatic life," says Sykes.

ALTERED LANDSCAPES
As snowpacks decrease in some parts of country, the demand for terrain parks is growing everywhere. To manufacture a sizable terrain park, ski resorts must manufacture snow. A lot of it.

That has led to more snowmaking, using more water and energy every year. In some areas, summer comes and goes but the massive piles of snow that were once halfpipes or tabletops remain. This prevents the natural cycle of melting and of plant growth and while these areas are small on each mountain, they add up in aggregate.

"You have a longer runoff period, so you have a lot of water running off smaller streams and they're carrying increased amounts of sediment. This is happening in parts of the mountain that have already been denuded, so topsoil is already depleted," says Sykes. "You're changing the profile of the mountain."

While sewage for snowmaking makes for good headlines, the real environmental issues seem to be hiding within the business of making snow.

-Mary Catherine O'Connor
@mcoc

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The Nasty Environmental Impact of Making Snow

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Pointing to the sacredness of the San Francisco Peaks north of Flagstaff, Arizona, a coalition of Native American tribes has been fighting the development and expansion of Arizona Snowbowl ski resort since 1979. It remains defiant, reports the New York Times , despite having suffered a key legal defeat this winter.

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A campaign that brings people together who love the mountains to do their part in preventing climate change.

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Skiers, snowboarders, and winter sports fans around the world are joining I AM PRO SNOW to spread the word about what's happening to our planet and take action to protect the season we love.

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Small overview of things ski resorts can do to lessen environmental impact.

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Environmental Impact of Ski Resorts - Environmental Impact of Ski Resorts | HowStuffWorks

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The ski resort industry has an indisputably large environmental impact. Slopes and lifts cut wide swaths across formerly pristine forest mountain habitats, illuminated snowcats growl through the night as they groom the trails for next day's skiers, snow cannons pump out artificial snow which wreaks havoc on native vegetation, swarms of tourists arrive in pollution-sputtering cars, and budding amenities and urban sprawl intensify these issues. In fact, many ski resorts are already beginning to feel the first stages of climate change. Studies report 20 percent less snow in alpine skiing areas below a mile (1,600 meters) in altitude and current forecasts estimate that within 50 years many of those ski resorts won't be able to continue business [source: The Independent].

That's not to say some ski resorts aren't working to lessen their environmental impact, however. Some of the many diverse measures being implemented include solar panels, wind turbines, low-flow toilets, recycling initiatives, bike-sharing programs and erosion-reduction techniques. Education and awareness programs are also gaining popularity, as studies have shown that while skiers enjoy their sport, they'd prefer it didn't have to be at the expense of the environment.

Organizations dedicated to assessing the environmental impact of ski resorts have started popping up; two are the Ski Club of Great Britain and the Ski Area Citizens' Coalition. They seek to identify which ski resorts are the most environmentally friendly based on a number of criteria such as:

Traffic mitigation and elimination strategies

Fuel-efficient and energy-saving tactics

Sound water-management practices

Climate protection and habitat conservation

Waste-stream management improvements

Ski resorts lose points for activities like terrain expansion, real estate development, road construction and parking lot construction. For skiers interested in frequenting more environmentally friendly ski resorts, the Web sites offer lists of both top performers and worst offenders. Other ways skiers can reduce their impact on planetary woes include finding greener methods of transportation, avoiding littering while on the slopes and sticking to the trails to avoid disturbing wildlife any more than necessary.

Speaking of sticking to things, we'll talk about ways to stick to the rules while visiting a ski resort on the next page.

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The ski resort industry has an indisputably large environmental impact. Slopes and lifts cut wide swaths across formerly pristine forest mountain habitats, illuminated snowcats growl through the night as they groom the trails for next day's skiers, snow cannons pump out artificial snow which wreaks havoc on native vegetation, swarms of tourists arrive in pollution-sputtering cars, and budding amenities and urban sprawl intensify these issues.

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An association that produces reports and campaigns for environmental protection in many mountain ranges all over the world, including the Alps.

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Mountain Wilderness - Association nationale de protection de la Montagne

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Mountain Wilderness - Association nationale de protection de la Montagne

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Mountain Wilderness France - Association de Protection de la Montagne. Association nationale loi 1901 reconnue d'utilité publique

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Mountain Wilderness campaigns

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Mountain Wilderness - Association nationale de protection de la Montagne

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Dans le cadre de sa campagne Changer d'approche, Mountain Wilderness cherche à consolider la base de données disponible sur la plate-forme collaborative changerdapproche.org, et ainsi permettre à des milliers de personnes de partager un maximum d'informations grâce aux contributions de chacun !

Pour ce faire, cette base de données, déjà riche de la quantité d'informations qu'elle contient sur des itinéraires accessibles en transport en commun souhaite développer ses collaborations dites " écotouristiques ", que l'on retrouve sur le portail sous les intitulés " Refuges, gîtes et bivouacs ", mais aussi " Produits locaux ".

Ainsi, afin d'inciter un grand nombre d'amateurs de pratiques récréatives en montagne à nous faire part de leurs expériences lors de leurs sorties, nous avons imaginé un format ludique et simple d'utilisation : la carte postale. L'idée ?
Indiquez directement votre bon plan, en remplissant les champs situés au dos de la carte ;
Complétez le formulaire en ligne : www.vos-bons-plans.mountainwilderness.fr ;
Ou tout simplement scannez le QR code à l'aide de votre smartphone...

C'est en faisant connaître et en échangeant nos bons plans, qu'ensemble, nous pouvons changer pour une approche plus douce de la montagne !
Alors n'hésitez pas à participer ! Pensez à prendre des cartes postales pendant vos vacances d'été à la montagne et renvoyez-les nous avant fin août.
Les portraits d'acteurs les plus marquant pourront être valorisés au travers des supports de communications de Mountain Wilderness.
Vous pouvez aussi nous aider en faisant connaître notre action autour de vous (nous envoyons des cartes sur simple demande) !

Téléchargez la Carte bons plans écotourisme

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La montagne autrement : partagez vos bons plans ! Dans le cadre de sa campagne Changer d'approche, Mountain Wilderness cherche à consolider la base de données disponible sur la plate-forme collaborative changerdapproche.org, et ainsi permettre à des milliers de personnes de partager un maximum d'informations grâce aux contributions de chacun !

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About the development of British Columbia's backcountry

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Directed by Nick Waggoner. With Bill Bennett, Grant Costello. Patagonia presents Jumbo Wild -a gripping, hour-long documentary film by Sweetgrass Productions that tells the true story of the decades-long battle over the future of British Columbia's iconic Jumbo Valley and highlights the tension between the protection of wilderness and the backcountry experience and ever-increasing development interests in wild places.

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Kansa Uni - Dept. of History

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LAWRENCE - When the Fascist Italian government after World War I wanted to spread leisure to the people to build support for the regime, it assisted the project of FIAT founder Giovanni Agnelli to design and build a ski resort in the Italian Alps.

Opened in 1934, the Sestriere resort became the model of a modern ski resort: a planned community built to attract members of the Italian middle class to participate in their newly discovered favorite sport, downhill skiing.

The attraction of the massive European mountain range and new accessibility of the sport that was previously confined largely to elites opened up new possibilities for the continent's economy as it shifted from manufacturing to tourism, especially after World War II. However, as a University of Kansas researcher has found, with few obstacles to building these resorts all over Alpine Europe, decades later, environmental consequences have become increasingly dramatic, and they might endanger what has become a major pillar of the continent's tourism economy.

"Sestriere provided the model for the postwar period as countries tried to rebuild their economies and plan for the future. They recognized that the fundamental resource in Alpine areas was the landscape and the snow, and they poured resources into developing the winter tourism industry," said Andrew Denning, assistant professor of history and author of the book "Skiing into Modernity: A Cultural and Environmental History."

The market was primed for growth as European countries were home to men who were trained as skiing troops in World War I, and in the interwar period, the sport extended further to the middle class. The image of skiing became associated with modernity in the 1920s and 1930s as the middle class became thrilled with the ability to take a motorized ski lift to a high peak and zoom down a slope at high speeds.

Sophisticated marketing also helped immensely, Denning said.

"You see skiing's importance because it's such a kinetic experience," he said. "It really is difficult for people to represent or consume either in written form or in photographs."

A classic magazine ad from the 1920s showed a skier and a new Mercedes next to each other urging the viewer to be the "master of space and time." In 1969, Hunter S. Thompson interviewed a trio of stars at the 1969 Chicago Auto Show who were touting the Chevy Camaro - a young O.J. Simpson, Chevrolet executive John Z. DeLorean and French triple gold-medalist Alpine skier Jean-Claude Killy.

Thompson wrote that by the late 1960s skiing was no longer an esoteric sport for the rich but a widely popular one as more people could afford it.

So they flocked to resorts like Italy's Sestriere or in Austria where the government used its Marshall Plan funds after the war to extend the tourist trade by building ski lifts and reconstructing hotels in the Alps rather than rebuilding industrial plants that produced material goods.

"Winter tourism now forms a major part of the national economy in Alpine Europe," Denning said. "These areas on average are now richer than lowland Europe, so you've really seen an inversion in the traditional relationships."

However, this shift did not come without ramifications in other areas, he said. States altered the mountains to make them conducive to skiing. They used dynamite to clear ski runs and knock down trees and built motorized lifts that attracted more people to these areas, but many complained that the mechanization of the mountainside spoiled their enjoyment of nature.

"More and more tourists put immense pressure on a fragile ecosystem, with pollution and waste overwhelming some of these small mountain communities," he said. "For a sport that depends on skiers' proximity to nature, this creates many problems. There is a tension between mastering nature to capitalize on the sport's popularity while also giving people a sense of escape from the industrial world."

Effects of climate change have contributed to lack of snow in some areas of the Alps, which have threatened both the environment and the economy there. No snow means less visitors. Since the 1970s some politicians and economists have talked about pulling back to avoid further major changes in the fundamental character of the mountains.

"That model of just massive growth seems to have ended," Denning said. "Now they're forced to think about what sustainable tourism means in the Alps."

The complexity of this history speaks to the challenges of economic development in the modern world, particularly the question of how to balance demands for growth with environmental constraints.

"It's really important to see how we got here. Many different interests have to be disentangled if you're thinking about environmental protection or new economic paths with these smaller Alpine communities that are dependent on tourism, especially winter tourism," Denning said. "There's a deep history here that deals with both material needs and development in once-backward communities, but also a deep emotional attachment to the landscape that provides a lot of meaning for people."

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Professor Andrew Denning uncovers how Alpine skiiing changed Europe's economy and environment

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LAWRENCE - When the Fascist Italian government after World War I wanted to spread leisure to the people to build support for the regime, it assisted the project of FIAT founder Giovanni Agnelli to design and build a ski resort in the Italian Alps.

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ThoughtCo

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Alpine skiing and snowboarding are great ways to spend time in the mountains relatively safely during the most unforgiving season of the year. In order to be able to offer this, ski resorts rely on a complex and energy-demanding infrastructure, with scores of employees and heavy use of water. The environmental costs associated with resort skiing come in multiple dimensions, and so do the solutions.

Disturbance to Wildlife

Alpine habitats above the tree line are already threatened by global climate change, and disturbance from skiers is one more stressor. These disturbances can come from scaring wildlife or harming their habitat by damaging vegetation and compacting soils. Ptarmigan (a type of grouse adapted to snowy habitats) in Scottish ski areas declined over several decades from collisions with lift cables and other wires, and from losing nests to crows, which had become common at the resorts.

Deforestation, Land Use Change

In North American ski resorts, most of the skiable terrain is located in forested areas, requiring a large amount of clear cutting to create ski trails. The resulting fragmented landscape negatively impacts habitat quality for many bird and mammal species. One study revealed that in the forest remnants left between slopes, bird diversity is reduced due to a negative edge effect.

There, wind, light, and disturbance levels increase near the open slopes, reducing habitat quality.

A recent expansion of a ski resort in Breckenridge, Colorado, prompted concerns that it would damage Canada lynx habitat. A deal with a local conservation group was achieved when the developer invested in lynx habitat protection elsewhere in the region.

Water Use

As a result of global climate change, most ski areas experience winters of increasingly shorter duration, with more frequent thawing periods. To maintain services to their clients, ski areas must make artificial snow to have good coverage on the slopes as well as around the lift bases and lodges. Artificial snow is made by mixing large volumes of water and high-pressure air. The demands for water can be very high, requiring pumping from surrounding lakes, rivers, or purpose-built artificial ponds. Modern snowmaking equipment can easily require 100 gallons of water per minute for each snow gun, and resorts can have dozens, or even hundreds in operation. At Wachusett Mountain Ski Area, a modest-size resort in Massachusetts, snowmaking can pull as much as 4,200 gallons of water a minute.

Fossil Fuel Energy

Resort skiing is an energy-intensive operation, relying on fossil fuels, producing greenhouse gases, and contributing to global warming. Ski lifts usually run on electricity, and operating a single ski lift for a month requires about the same energy needed to power 3.8 households for a year. To maintain the surface of the snow on the ski runs, a resort deploys nightly a fleet of trail groomers each operating on about 5 gallons of diesel per hour and producing carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxides, and particulate emissions.

A more complete estimate of the greenhouse gases emitted in association with resort skiing would need to include those produced by skiers driving or flying to the mountains.

Ironically, climate change is affecting most ski regions. As global atmospheric temperatures go up, snowpacks are thinning, and the ski seasons are getting shorter.

Solutions and Alternatives?

Many ski resorts have made substantial efforts to minimize their environmental impacts. Solar panels, wind turbines, and small hydro turbines have been deployed to supply renewal energy. Improved waste management and composting programs have been implemented, and green building technologies have been employed. Forest management efforts have been planned to improve wildlife habitat. It is now possible for skiers to gather information about a resort's sustainability efforts and make informed consumer decisions.

Where to start? The National Ski Area Association gives out yearly awards to the resorts with outstanding environmental performances.

Alternatively, Nordic (or cross-country) skiing provides opportunities to enjoy the snow with a much lighter impact on land and water resources. Some Nordic skiing resorts do, however, make use of snow making technology and fossil fueled powered trail grooming equipment.

An increasing number of outdoor enthusiasts seek snowy slopes by practicing lower impact forms of skiing. These backcountry skiers and snowboarders use specialized equipment that allows them to make their way up the mountain on their own power, and then to ski down natural terrain that has not been logged or groomed. These skiers have to be self-sufficient and able to mitigate a multitude of mountain-related safety risks. The learning curve is steep, but backcountry skiing has a lighter environmental impact than resort skiing. Alpine areas are very sensitive, though, and no activity there is impact free: a study in the Alps found that black grouse showed elevated stress levels when frequently disturbed by backcountry skiers and snowboarders, with direct consequences on reproduction and survival.

Sources

Alettaz et al. 2007. Spreading Free-riding Snow Sports Represent a Novel Serious Threat for Wildlife.

Laiolo and Rolando. 2005. Forest Bird Diversity and Ski Runs: A Case of Negative Edge Effect.

MNN. 2014. Snowmakers Are Saving Ski Resorts...For Now.

Wipf et al. 2005. Effects of Ski Piste Preparation on Alpine Vegetation.

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The Environmental Impacts of Skiing and Snowboarding

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Alpine skiing and snowboarding are great ways to spend time in the mountains relatively safely during the most unforgiving season of the year. In order to be able to offer this, ski resorts rely on a complex and energy-demanding infrastructure, with scores of employees and heavy use of water.