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Switzerland: snow flown in by helicopter in attempt to keep ski slopes open
- Logans_Run 4y agoGlobal warming being caused in part by internal combustion engines and aviation results in less snow for skiers... Solution? Chopper some more snow in to counter the effects of I.C.E's and aviation. Huhmmmm.... Does anyone else spot a dichotomy in thinking here?
- 2OEH8eoCRo0 4y agoThere is like 115,000 commercial flights a day. Complaining about the impact of celeb x or one off flights is just silly.
- blitzar 4y ago100 flights for 200 cubic meters of snow. However, the heli strategy did not work, as the CEO explains in “Capital”: “This attempt did not work,” says In-Albon. The amount of snow per flight is too small and loading and unloading too difficult. It didnt even work.
- ajsnigrutin 4y agoBut each of those flights carries 100+ passengers + tons of cargo. Does taylor swift or ursula von der leyn really need a private plane for traveling 50km? https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2021/11/02/revealed-air-miles-ursula-used-private-jet-travel-just-31-miles/ https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2021/11/02/revealed-a...
- 2OEH8eoCRo0 4y agoI live near a small airfield and many aircraft travel 0km. They takeoff, fly around, and land in the same place just for fun!
- prottog 4y agoBy that metric, very few of us travel more than the distance from where we were born to where we are buried. ;-)
- kiliantics 4y agowhy not both? the population of the super wealthy is getting pretty large and they take a lot of flights: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBNcYxHJPLE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBNcYxHJPLE
- flavius29663 4y agoComplaining about celebs is mostly because they are big pushers for green energy and climate change mitigation, then they go ahead and fly private planes everywhere. Rules for thee... Some people feel like they're treated like serfs: you stay in your village, on car, no flights, no tourism, save water, wave electricity, while I, the nobleman, get to travel to climate change conferences in private planes, because I am important to the cause.
- 2OEH8eoCRo0 4y agoThere is no rule preventing me from doing the same. This reads like flamebait.
- bnt 4y agoSurreal times we’re living in.
- chmod775 4y agoIt's probably nothing next to the CO2 generated by all the people traveling there, but you're on the right track.
- a4a4a4a4 4y agoYou realize there are entire towns and villages whose lives depend on this tourism, right? I'm not saying it's a perfect solution to fly snow in, but you can't discount the impact this has on the population if the resorts close down.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- epgui 4y agoThe survival of a few villages is an issue that pales in comparison to the issue of climate change.
- a4a4a4a4 4y agoWritten from the comfort of your warm home with your secure, easily replaceable tech job. It's very easy to be philosophical when it's not your entire life and family history at stake. Answering questions like "what should people do instead?" is important to figuring out how we can move away from things that damage the climate. If you just tell people "your life and livelihood isn't as important as X" isn't going to get that person to agree with you.
- epgui 4y agoI don’t really appreciate the spin you’re putting to my comment, but I think you’re just missing the point. The point of my comment is not to trivialize the livelihoods of the inhabitants of “a few villages”. As you correctly point out, that would be crass and unfair. The point of my comment is that climate change is an existential crisis at a scale much larger than “a few villages”: it’s fairly likely to result in an extinction event. For all villages.
- bernardv 4y agoTypical human behavior to constantly seek to push their luck, past the point of sustainability. Any resource-based community, tied to a single commodity, must know it is living on borrowed time.
- nix23 4y agoAnd you can add the water and power that was wasted before that...snowcanon's...bring up food and beer so the skiers can eat a schnitzel and drink a beer there, and about 70% come with their cars, and all the helicopter flights and explosives to prevent avalanches, oh and the nightly Snowcats to make the slope beautiful. It's a massive waste of energy overall.
- danuker 4y agoAt what point does human enjoyment become waste of energy? And so what if energy is wasted? Is greenhouse gas the problem? Paradoxically, global warming benefited Europe this winter, reducing the influence of the Russian gas embargo. In any case, European countries have lower greenhouse gas emissions per citizen than, say, the US or Australia (since we actually have emissions taxes). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_greenhouse_gas_emissions_per_capita https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_greenhous...
- throw_pm23 4y agoThere was a nice comic that expressed things in terms of horse-power or "invisible slaves" working for you. When your enjoyment requires the equivalent of thousands working for you, and it is from a resource that is finite and non-renewable, then it is probably wasteful. Found it: https://www.stuartmcmillen.com/comic/energy-slaves/ https://www.stuartmcmillen.com/comic/energy-slaves/
- prottog 4y agoThen it's a beautiful thing that modern life allows even those of humble means to enjoy the comforts for which kings of old would have needed thousands of actual slaves. Every resource is finite and non-renewable considering even the sun will go out at some point. Let's not bemoan the use of fossil-sourced energy until the point we level up in technology and can master less polluting sources. After all, fossil fuels have fostered more human life than climate change will ever destroy.
- 4y ago
- capableweb 4y agoBut, what about the races?! According to the organizer, this was absolutely justified because of the... added value! > “Of course it sounds incredibly stupid to transport snow by helicopter. But that was the only way we could save the slalom and combined races. The effort was absolutely justified.” He referred to the very high added value for the entire region.
- zx8080 4y agoThey says "absolutely justified", no reason for distrust. Money talks.
- Nowado 4y agoWait until you hear about air conditioning.
- onlyrealcuzzo 4y agoAir conditioning is relatively efficient compared to driving a 2000 pound steel box 30 miles down the road (and back) to buy eggs.
- sokoloff 4y agoMaybe an air-cooled VW Beetle or 1980s Golf/Rabbit weighed that little, but a modern car is more like 1.5 to 2x that.
- prottog 4y agoYeah, light cars are rare, especially in the US. A brand-new base model Hyundai Elantra, which is a very mainstream compact sedan, weighs 2,725 lbs. The lightest new passenger car sold is the Mitsubishi Mirage at 2,095 lbs. It has all of 78 horsepower. ;-)
- SketchySeaBeast 4y agoHey, don't forget the steel box is also going to be air conditioned as well.
- NotYourLawyer 4y agoMost people live a lot closer than 30 miles from the grocery store.
- alar44 4y agoIdiot sheep humans and their... Food.
- saiya-jin 4y agoThis was 1 chopper doing private property management to increase its value, yet outrage here resembles end of world... lets be a bit smarter. Ie one can save 1000x more energy every year to resettle people from places like Phoenix to location where AC nor heating is not needed. We can sit all day coming up with fantasies what to ban to cut down energy consumption
- planede 4y agoI guess Futurama is a documentary now https://youtu.be/0SYpUSjSgFg?t=66 https://youtu.be/0SYpUSjSgFg?t=66
- bamboozled 4y agoAbsolutely idiotic isn't it?
- hankchinaski 4y agotransport accounts for 16.2% of greenhouse emissions
- hammock 4y ago[flagged]
- synthc 4y agoThink again.
- melenaboija 4y ago[flagged]
- mythhouse 4y ago> Huhmmmm.... Does anyone else spot a dichotomy in thinking here? No because we've accepted rich flying their private jets and lecturing everyone about how they are causing climate change by driving their suv to drop off kids at school. This isn't any weirder than that.
- sva_ 4y agoEveryone always has some special reason justifying what they do.
- dsfyu404ed 4y agoI think the point is that if you're gonna tell other people what to do you need to set some semblance of an example by putting your money where your mouth is. For example no religion that preaches the traditional sorts of stuff religions preach tolerates clergy who act like Charlie Sheen.
- izacus 4y ago> Global warming being caused in part by internal combustion engines and aviation results in less snow for skiers... Solution? Chopper some more snow in to counter the effects of I.C.E's and aviation. Huhmmmm.... Does anyone else spot a dichotomy in thinking here? Well, they're doing it to keep their income and profits coming. A major part of it in fact - probably half the yearly income. Since you're probably from a western country, how much of an income cut and inconvenience when driving/commuting were you prepared to take to combat climate change until now? Because that's really what you're asking here - are you going to take a 50% paycut and stop using your ICE vehicle forever?
- lotsofpulp 4y ago> Because that's really what you're asking here - are you going to take a 50% paycut and stop using your ICE vehicle forever? Only if everyone else does. I.e. a fossil fuel tax so high that it renders helicoptering snow for recreational activities untenable.
- izacus 4y agoExactly! That's the thing happening here - "I'm going to keep my convenience until everyone else changes their mind!" being used as an excuse to do nothing and just point fingers at others.
- mrpopo 4y agoNot really the same thing. Snow in low-altitude stations is running out. Bringing it in via helicopter is not gonna work forever. People cannot keep relying on it for their income.
- timeon 4y ago> inconvenience when driving/commuting Most people I know just commute on bike or public transport.
- WeylandYutani 4y agoI'm an atheist with no kids. I have to basically use up this planet before I die because I can't take it with me into the grave.
- unpopular42 4y agoNext week it will snow again, we'll all go skiing and forget this
- tacker2000 4y agoYea, mid jan is usually when the real snow season starts in the alps
- TSiege 4y agoThe most extreme heatwave in European history just happened this past week. The point of this article isn't that weather changes day to day or week to week. The point is this is a metaphor for the absurdity of the situation source on heatwave: https://grist.org/climate/europe-kicks-off-2023-with-a-record-setting-heat-wave/ https://grist.org/climate/europe-kicks-off-2023-with-a-recor...
- thewhitetulip 4y agoI know Europe isn't as anti climate change as US but I really hope rhat the world atarts taking this seriously When Europe is as hot as Asia during summers and as hot as Asia during respective winters that clearly proves beyond a shadow of doubt that global warming is real Because Trump had said "it is snowing here" to justify xlimate denying. They have extreme polar vortex over there so they haven't yet faced the severity of climate change, I think.
- vinay427 4y ago> I know Europe isn't as anti climate change as US I feel like this isn't the clearest phrasing. :) Perhaps you meant anti-anti-climate change (clunky) or anti-climate change awareness or similar?
- thewhitetulip 4y agoyes EU doesnt seem to be big climate change deniers & their leaders can understand the difference between weather and climate
- m_mueller 4y ago[flagged]
- thewhitetulip 4y agoAre we reading the same comment? I merely prayed that the world wakes up to the climate disaster Imagine having to dumpsnow via a helicopter... This means things are going to be worse in the coming years Every country needs to wake up and fix issues of non renewable energy
- m_mueller 4y agoit was just an issue with your phrasing of 'anti climate change'. I think you meant 'climate change denying' or something like that, then it makes more sense. Being 'anti climate change' to me means that you try to stop the change, and by your comment I read it as the US being more advanced in that regard.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- rspoerri 4y agoThis page seems fake to me. No contact informations. All "follow us pages" such as twitter, facebook etc link to the root of the page.
- _Microft 4y agoSearch for Gstaad Schnee Helikopter and you will find plenty of German sources for this news. HN doesn't accept foreign language submissions, though.
- rspoerri 4y agoThe article is okayish, even if its exaggarated and misleading. But as a swiss i would not trust this page. The article is written as if the whole sky resort looks as in the picture. While they actually tried to fix some patches of the route which had to few snow. Usually they fix it by moving snow around with a plow. Which they can not because the snow is to thin currently. Also they aborted after trying 9 times, because it was not economical. I totally agree to the absurdity to transport snow with a helicopter. However it's a big difference between what people expect when reading this article to what really happened.
- 082349872349872 4y agoswitzerlandtimes.ch does not show up in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_newspapers_in_Switzerland https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_newspapers_in_Switzerl... , which suggests its credibility is well under that of Blick or the train papers. furthermore, checking on nic.ch yields: Domain name switzerlandtimes.ch Registrar MARCARIA.COM INTERNATIONAL INC. 501 Silverside Road, Suite 105 US-19809 Wilmington DE Phone +1 3474711962 domains@marcaria.com First registration date 20 March 2022 which in my eyes is rather sus. ==== https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng is a nice english-language service. (unfortunately I doubt it or the NZZ english version will be carrying this story)
- phlo 4y agoSRF (reputable) and Hauptstadt (very local, focused on Bern, I'm not familiar, but doesn't look made-up) report on it as well. As absurd as it is to see (I had my first ski lessons on those very slopes), I think it checks out. https://www.srf.ch/news/schweiz/wegen-gruener-pisten-gstaad-laesst-schnee-per-heli-einfliegen https://www.srf.ch/news/schweiz/wegen-gruener-pisten-gstaad-... https://www.hauptstadt.be/a/helikopterfluege-hauptstadt-brief-118 https://www.hauptstadt.be/a/helikopterfluege-hauptstadt-brie...
- seanalltogether 4y agoAm I right in thinking that Gstaad is like the Aspen of Switzerland, one of the richest ski resort towns? Is this why they can get away with helicoptering in snow?
- LeonM 4y agoSwitzerland is a rich country, and just about every ski resort is outrageously expensive (think 14 euro for a beer, 35 for a pizza, 150+/night for a hotel, 50+/day slopes). So financially, they can definitely get away with helicoptering in snow. The most exclusive ones are probably St. Moritz, Zermatt and Lech, not so sure about Gstaad.
- lscdlscd 4y agoOther than the pizza and beer, I challenge you to find a ski resort in Colorado/Utah much cheaper than the prices you listed. It's crazy here in the US. I'll be spending a week skiing in Austria next week and altogether it's cheaper than a week of skiing in Colorado.
- xeromal 4y agoI just replied to OP too. Skiing in SLC is also ridiculous. Hotel is 500 a night and ski lift tickets start at 142. lmao.
- zahllos 4y agoGstaad is 'exclusive'. It probably isn't so well known, but it has very expensive resorts and hotels, like https://www.thealpinagstaad.ch/ https://www.thealpinagstaad.ch/ and its own private bank https://www.saanenbank.ch/ https://www.saanenbank.ch/ and the centre of the village has a lot of luxury shopping. It is definitely up there in terms of destinations for UHNW people. However I don't think it attracts quite such a percentage of "can afford to go but not ultra high net worth" people, which is much more true of Zermatt, Verbier, St Moritz etc.
- xeromal 4y agoWhen you listed your prices, I was awed by the expense of the beer and pizza, but once you got to the hotels and ski pass, the prices look very reasonable for the US. I pulled up Snowbird in Salt Lake City, Utah which has some of the best skiing in the US and not even fancy like Aspen, Colorado. A hotel up there on a Wednesday in two weeks is 454USD per night. Lift tickets are 142USD per day. Blows my mind. When I skied there in college in 2012, they were roughly 60-80USD per day and they had free ski between 1500-1700.
- perihelions 4y agoHN: proudly carrying the torch of the late, great Twitter in turning molehills into blazing novas of righteous outrage. One helicopter. *One*.
- _Microft 4y agoWhat would you consider a sufficient example to highlight the problematic mindset behind these actions then? On its own, neither the helicopter here, nor the private jet there or the cruiseship in the Mediterranean and so forth are a problem. In total, they absolutely are. What would you suggest to submit instead?
- perihelions 4y agoI don't think it's problematic at all. It looks to me a reasonable and proportionate investment that supported a large number of local, seasonal jobs. Amortize that fossil fuel consumption per capita -- one helicopter, over thousands of vacationers -- and it's an absolutely trivial amount. In terms of pure numbers, most HN'ers did far "worse" things on their most recent vacation, even if it were a short car trip.
- tgv 4y agoIf you're open to taxing for carbon footprint (to put it loosely), and it seems that that's your argument, you'll find that ski trips are going to be very costly, even more so when adding the cost of generating snow.
- MopMop 4y agoIt sounds more like a swiss town in crises. The local economy probably relies on visitors coming during the snow season to provide for the rest of the year. It is nothing to do with greed.
- toomuchtodo 4y agoLike coal plants, they’ll end up needing funds to transition to a new normal going forward. The next 100 years won’t be like the last 100 years.
- cplusplusfellow 4y agoI’m not giving funds to rich ski towns.
- toomuchtodo 4y agoIt’s not for the wealthy, it’s for the working class. Of course don’t compensate asset price destruction due to climate change except for those who have limited means. In my coal plant example, workers are typically close to retirement and have limited means. They aren’t financially independent, so they need something to bridge the gap between this painful transition and death. I apologize that wasn’t clear in my original comment. Help those who need the help, but let the wealthy take the L.
- hutzlibu 4y ago"It’s not for the wealthy, it’s for the working class." I think the swiss working class is a bit better of, than those in the subsahara facing drought. They are in the need of transition funds. I also think it would not be helpful to ban helicopter snow transport or something populistic, but it is really not smart, trying to keep things artificial alife - like certain wintersport areas - by means that contribute to the problem.
- xeromal 4y ago
- smileysteve 4y agoSeems like they should consider a dome, like Houston (to fight humidity). If your snow mountain reflects most heat energy, has a great heat pump (including heating the homes and businesses) then you have a huge indoor ski mountain. Bonus if it's made inexpensively with recycled glass and plastic.
- samwillis 4y agoThis isn't a new phenomenon or something restricted to "exclusive" resorts. I have seen this happen in other alpine ski areas over the last 5-10 years when there has been particularly bad snow. Normally in places that are of high importance and traffic, such as at the top of main lifts. Ski resorts use helicopters for many logistical activities, if it keeps the area open they will do it. This year the Alps are having a particularly bad January, and with it only being four weeks till the traditional February rolling school holidays for family skiing trips, they are very concerned about keeping the areas open. That's not to say there isn't a level of absurdity to the whole thing!
- doikor 4y agoAnother trick that some resorts that have big competitions (world cup etc) early in the year now do is store snow at the end the year under some insulated plastic and/or saw dust. They can spread that to the slope and guarantee conditions for the big event. Obviously if it is really warm it will melt away in a few days after that but at least they can have their event. Maybe they could do the same for these important spots around lifts etc.
- michaelt 4y agoI've got to say, "ski resort that already has a helicopter uses it to move snow from one part of the resort to another, to patch a few high-traffic areas" makes more sense to me than "snow flown in" as in my country, having something 'flown in' usually implies transporting it several hundred miles.
- Sharlin 4y agoTo be fair, "last 5-10 years" is pretty new. I doubt such measures were needed even a few decades ago.
- dylan604 4y agoI started skiing in the 80s, and even then they had snow machines to make snow when it was lean times. Seems much more practical than using helicopters.
- bamboozled 4y agoWhy is Switzerland so hot? I know climate change is a thing, but many other countries are receiving a lot of big snow falls. What's specifically going on in Switzerland? Jet stream weirdness allowing warm air further north?
- Freak_NL 4y agoThis is not limited to Switzerland, but to all the alpine regions in Europe; i.e., also France, Germany, and Austria. Only northern Italy seems to have faired a little bit better, but that is just meteorological luck.
- bonzini 4y agoWe had a normal beginning of December, but now it's been easily February weather for a couple weeks and forecast isn't any different. Temperatures in Rome last week were more typical of Easter than Christmas; northern Italy was not as extreme only because it's cloudy.
- Foobar8568 4y agoTemperatures reached 20°C in south France, I've even been bitten by mosquitoes (to my surprise, no tiger ones), and did killed a few. What used to be a rare occurrence even in summer, happens during the supposed coolest months.
- bamboozled 4y agoAs someone who loves winter, this is sad but I guess it's just going to be a new reality...
- hutzlibu 4y agoYes, the jet stream is currently making whole central europe very warm, since before christmas.
- somedude895 4y agohttps://www.severe-weather.eu/global-weather/winter-season-2022-2023-polar-vortex-power-up-stratospheric-warming-wave-forecast-united-states-europe-fa/ https://www.severe-weather.eu/global-weather/winter-season-2... This Polar Vortex weirdness is what I've been hearing about.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- throwawayxy1 4y agoIts not good for the environment. is it?
- JCM9 4y agoThe east coast of the US has long used extensive snowmaking capacity to keep slopes open. Most resorts in the east have plenty of cold air, but natural snow is iffy at best for long periods. It’s now common for resorts in the east to have 100% (or close to it) of the mountain equipped with snow guns. It’s not fluffy powder but creates a perfectly acceptable surface. However if the problem these Swiss resorts are having is that it’s just consistently too warm them this is unfortunately probably the beginning of the end for them. Flying snow in via helicopters strikes me as trying to rearrange the deck chairs on the Titanic.
- scythe 4y agoRecently, ski resorts around Cleveland have been closed due to warm conditions as well: https://www.alpinevalleyohio.com/ https://www.alpinevalleyohio.com/ The Great Lakes, except Superior, are nearly ice-free right now. In January! It's not looking good.
- teeray 4y agoNatural snow is more of an “icing on the cake” in the northeast. If you don’t make snow, you might be okay eventually, but you’ll likely miss out on some early major holiday income periods (Christmas week, MLK weekend). Snowmaking is an arms race in that those ski areas that did make snow will take your customers for those times.
- leejo 4y agoGstaad is quite an exclusive resort, but is relatively low level - the village is at about 1,000m. I once shot some photos for the local ski club at one of the slopes there and they wouldn't let anyone but the racers use the piste as they wanted to keep it in good condition. IIRC it was one of the privately owned runs, and they really didn't want this snowboarder wrecking the piste so I had to hike up to shoot photos... Anyway, Gstaad is not far from Glacier 3000 which has most of its slopes at, yes, 3,000m, so anyone in Gstaad doesn't have to go far for (currently) guaranteed snow. The snow up there should be pretty good. Lack of snow in this region isn't unusual at this time of year, we had a good amount at the beginning of Dec. What has been unusual is the high temperatures, which has meant that snow is now mostly gone and the snow generating machines are of no use. We've also had a lot of rain, which has made managing the existing snow difficult. This is the future of low to mid level resorts however. In a couple of generations time they won't be able to offer skiing, or the length of the ski season will be significantly reduced. I shot a photo project on this when I first arrived here, nearly a decade ago: https://www.formulanon.com/switzerland-bergbahnen https://www.formulanon.com/switzerland-bergbahnen
- anon23anon 4y agoHow do snowboarders wreck the slopes anymore than skiers?
- blastro 4y agoYes, they tend to scrape snow off of the mountain moreso than skiers.
- jlarocco 4y agoBesides scraping up the snow in general, they can really mess up bump runs because they travel through them a lot differently than skiers.
- MichaelZuo 4y agoCouldn't ski resorts just charge snowboarders more to make up for the extra grooming costs?
- ElfinTrousers 4y agoIf I were in charge of a ski resort anywhere in the world (and I am not suggesting that I should be), I'd be spending most of my working time trying to come up with a radical transition plan, to an industry with a viable future. I'm not sure if there's much you can do with a mountain that's covered in mud instead of snow though.
- rsync 4y agoLift serviced downhill mountain biking being the obvious choice. Many resorts already do a brisk summer business - snow mass and telluride. For instance… Zermatt…
- ElfinTrousers 4y agoThe fact that this was obvious to you and not me suggests that you should be the one running this ski resort. I'm not sure how I ended up here in the first place.
- flandish 4y agoSo interesting that we (as humans in a system) can choose to fly snow in so we can keep making money even though Mother Nature is clearly telling is we’ve taken too much. Is there nothing the pursuit of profit won’t exploit?
- pleb_nz 4y agoI wonder how much pollution was created by that exercise. When will we actually start to put a higher value on the planet when we make these decisions. The irony....
- RHSman2 4y agoThere is nothing exclusive about the resort. It’s pricey but nothing stops anyone coming, and many do. The question is, why would you when the skiing really is average compared to its near by Neighbours.
- ornornor 4y agoThis is obscene and idiotic. Could there be a link between this exceptionally warm winter in Switzerland and that kind of idiocy? In my city, the Christmas tree is flown in by helicopter each Christmas… because we have too much money I guess? It would totally fit by other means (truck, crane, however the rest of the world does it) but no we have to have this gigantic tree cut down, helicoptered in, and disposed of a month later. Infuriating.
- ryan_j_naughton 4y agoI wonder if there is an environmentally sustainable solution to converting established ski resorts that become unviable due to climate change into indoor ski resorts. Indoor ski resorts are already a thing but generally they suck[1] Here is a ludicrous futurist thought experiment: 1) If the slopes could be covered in a building, similar to this: https://th-thumbnailer.cdn-si-edu.com/u-PEeOAFNhog5RDbemURPefJfko=/fit-in/1072x0/https://tf-cmsv2-smithsonianmag-media.s3.amazonaws.com/filer/57/8f/578f64fd-196c-414f-8634-801b2a573c8f/alpincenter.jpg https://th-thumbnailer.cdn-si-edu.com/u-PEeOAFNhog5RDbemURPe... 2) If that building were highly insulated, but with the option to rapidly circulate outside air inside it (for use at night time, when the weather is colder). 3) If we could invent some new meta-material glass that allows infrared light to pass through it, then we could actually make this out of glass and still have the wonderful views on the mountain without incurring a huge greenhouse effect penalty for the transparency. In fact, if the glass is totally transparent to infrared and visible light LEAVING the covered slops, but slightly tinted for any light entering, then it would naturally be net cooler than the outside. 4) if the additional cooling required is powered by solar and wind. 5) Final ridiculous addition: Make these double paned glass roofs retractable so when real snow happens or the weather is cold enough, it is still outdoors. Having the ability to still ski on the real slopes all year long would be great. [1] https://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/eight-worlds-coolest-indoor-snow-parks-180974267/ https://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/eight-worlds-coolest-i...
- twobitshifter 4y agoI would expect people will just have to drive farther to get to a mountain which is the case here. I don’t expect the added cost of driving another hour north to make it attractive enough to dome over and cool ski slopes.
- sjducb 4y agoI'm skiing in France right now. Some of the runs have green grass growing on them, with no snow. I've never seen it like this before.