Mountain tourism in climate change: Yesterday’s news

German winter sports resorts have to face reality: the snow is falling more and more often. Tourism in the mountains should still continue – but in green.

The German Weather Service is talking about a “low pressure highway” in these January days. Changeable weather with a lot of humidity in the atmosphere. Actually exactly what lift operators and winter sports fans want right now.

If only there wasn’t this problem with the snow line. Around the turn of the year it was over 3000 meters. Sounds extreme, but is likely to increase in the future.

“The snow line has moved up about four hundred meters in the last 100 years,” says Reto Knutti from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich. “And even in the best case, with climate protection, we will expect another 400 meters by about 2050.” Actually, Knutti’s analysis is a clear message to the destinations in the ski industry: In the long term, ski tourism will hardly be possible at lower altitudes. Not even with artificial snow.

The future after the snow

And while many are now amazed at the pictures of white artificial snow slopes on brown meadows, some are already working on the future after snow. One of them is Josef Loferer, mayor of Schleching in the Chiemgau Alps. The 1800-inhabitant village nestles between the surrounding mountains with intact nature and high biodiversity.

“Schleching said goodbye to intensive ski tourism a long time ago. We do gentle ski tourism, only with natural snow.” That was wonderfully accepted, says Loferer. That means: The local drag lift runs when the natural snow conditions allow it. Otherwise he stands still.

Soft tourism instead of après-ski circus

Schleching is an example of how alpine resorts are adapting to climate change. The community, together with the neighboring town of Sachrang, is one of the so-called mountaineering villages – places that have consciously committed themselves to resource-poor and sustainable tourism.

Behind the title “Mountaineering Village” is a transnational predicate that is awarded by the respective Alpine Clubs. The criteria are strict: Large lifts, hotel complexes or après-ski circus are taboo. Instead, the destinations want to offer their guests a natural alternative, especially when there is little snow. The first “mountaineering village” in Germany was Ramsau near Berchtesgaden in 2015, Schleching and Sachrang followed in 2017, and Kreuth in the Tegernsee valley in 2018. There are currently 35 “mountaineering villages” across the Alps.

The basic attitude of the “Mountaineering Villages” is proving itself right now in the face of climate change, says Axel Döring, President of the Alpine Protection Commission Cipra in Germany: “They are in a better position because they take and use nature as it is and do not try to use expensive and to outwit nature with energy-intensive structures. This outwitting of nature in winter sports works less and less.”

German ski areas play a subordinate role

The label “Mountaineering Village” works for Schleching. Schleching, together with the neighboring towns in the Achental, recorded 15 percent more overnight stays in the past year than in 2019, the last season before Corona. The shrinking winter is more than offset by the growing summer, explains Mayor Loferer.

Concepts like the “Mountaineering Villages” remain a small-scale holiday phenomenon, but the general rule applies to society as a whole: Germans continue to ski. According to the Federal Statistical Office, there are 14.6 million people in Germany, making Germany the second largest skier nation in the world after the USA.

They no longer spend their winter holidays in their own country. “The Germans mainly go to Austria and South Tyrol. German ski areas play a subordinate role,” says Oliver Kern from the test and comparison portal skiresort.de. While the number of hits on his site has been increasing for years, the number of currently around 1,350 kilometers of pistes in Germany continues to fall. For comparison: in France alone there are more than 10,000 kilometers of pistes.

The number of slopes in Germany is shrinking

While some ski areas in this country still rely on snow cannons, despite clear statements from climate research, many traditional cable car companies have long since given up the expensive maintenance of ski slopes. The Karwendelbahn, the second highest cable car in Germany, stopped operating in the 1990s.

Since then, the descent through the steep Dammkar has been operated as a so-called ski route, which means: Whoever skis here does not move in the secured but in the open ski area without continuous markings, safety measures or slope preparation. Only the protection against avalanches is taken over by a local commission.

Other destinations are also trying out ski routes for the freeride public – for example on the Hochgrat near Oberstaufen, on the Tegelberg in Schwangau, on the Laber in Oberammergau or on the Wallberg in Rottach-Egern. Instead of relying on the large rush of ski guests, activities with few resources such as hiking, tobogganing or paragliding are used.

“Relaxation in the snow far away from mass tourism and the ski circus” promises the website of the listed Predigtstuhlbahn in Bad Reichenhall. However, it is only still running because years ago a large contractor bought the almost 100-year-old system – and thus saved it.

Snow cannons continue to be subsidized in Bavaria

Where alpine skiing continues, it can no longer do without artificial snow. “Snowmaking is a kind of transitional technology at the moment,” says tourism researcher Jürgen Schmude from the Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich. One approach could be to use snow cannons to temporarily cushion the change in the tourist offer on site. “In the long term, funding for snowmaking makes no sense at all,” says Schmude.

Nevertheless, politicians in Bavaria have been making taxpayer money available for years and subsidizing the construction of cable cars with up to 35 percent of the costs – including snow cannons and new parking spaces. The latter in particular was only criticized in December by the opposition in the Bavarian state parliament, but was then extended again by the governing coalition of the CSU and Free Voters. So far, the subsidy has cost around 92 million euros in public funds.

Meanwhile, on the mountain it is still too warm for the time of year. The beautiful precipitation that so many desire as snow, it too often falls as rain. The result: outside it is not white, but brown. The mountains in Germany have become too small for winter sports with guaranteed snow.