Green Snow: tips for more responsible skiing

Our mountains are some of the most pristine natural environments in the world. These wilderness areas provide enjoyment for a great many tourists and local people, as well as livelihoods and support for often hard-pressed mountain communities. They must also be conserved for the future.

What could be more sustainable than skiing? All you leave behind is tracks in the snow - right? At first glance skiing might appear highly sustainable, but in fact there are some very significant environmental and cultural impacts.
Responsibletravel.com gives us a simple guide to Green Skiing:

 Most downhill ski slopes are created by grading; this often involves the removal of trees and flattening of slopes to create larger areas for skiing. The addition of large pylons and ski lifts creates further environmental scarring.

 Wildlife is disturbed by ski developments and skiers - in North America, for example, the dwindling Colorado population of the Canadian Lynx is a notorious example.

Consider ski touring, cross country skiing or snow shoeing. All are less dependent on graded slopes and ski lifts and therefore have significantly fewer environmental impacts.

 With global warming we expect more resorts to be developed at higher altitudes, simply migrating problems higher up the mountains.

 As a further consequence of global warming, the use of snow making has increased, iIn some cases drawing water unsustainably from local water courses. In some areas chemicals used to ensure that the water freezes at a low temperature leach back into the soil when artificial snow melts.

 When we fly into ski resorts the climate change to which we are contributing is destroying glaciers and limiting the future of many resorts.

If travelling to the US make sure your chosen ski resort has signed up to the National Ski Area Association Sustainable Slopes environmental charter. For other areas ask your ski operator if the resort is International Standards Organisation (ISO) 14001 Accredited.

Travel by train by where possible, it’s convenient and reduces carbon emissions. Rail Europe’s Snow Train to the Alps departs on Friday evening, so you can enjoy 8 days on the slopes and return the following Saturday evening!

 If you need to travel by air, offset the carbon emissions of your flight.

 Litter discarded in the mountains does not degrade ( orange-peel takes 2 years and cigarette butts 5 years to degrade). When we ski over new tree shoots in or under the snow we destroy them.

Take all your litter home with you, and if you see litter just swoop down and pick it up.

 While a significant number of seasonal jobs are created by tourism, a proportion, including chalet maids, are taken by overseas staff, hitting local employment. The cultural landscape of many mountain villages is changed by overseas ownership of local properties which are only occupied for a very small part of the year, and by relatively large numbers of tourists swamping villages.

Stay in locally-owned accommodation, rather than that owned by overseas tour companies - unless they can convince you that they provide significant local employment, train and develop local people, use local services & produce, and that the accommodation has been built to high environmental standards.

Eat in local restaurants and use ski guides from the local community.

Ask your tour operator for its written responsible tourism policy; if they haven't got one they are probably not taking environmental issues seriously.

Consider yourself as guests in other people’s communities and respect local people and ways of life.

Skiing is, and will remain, a very popular winter holiday. For those who enjoy skiing it’s important to do so in a more, rather than less responsible way, even if skiing is never going to be the most responsible holiday option....

 

responsibletravel.com is one of the fast growing online travel agencies in the UK, and lobbies for more responsible tourism.
For information and advice telephone 0044 (0)1273 600030