Snow Machines: Battling Climate Change on The Slopes

Winters are getting warmer and the snow is becoming increasingly unreliable.

Ski resorts have long been increasingly relying on artificial snow. In Italy, 90 percent of the slopes are already covered with machine-made snow. But how does modern snowmaking work today? And what conditions are needed? Spend a season on the road with Stefan Megert, head snowmaker at the Davos Klosters ski lifts. But there are also places where conventional snowmaking systems are no longer sufficient. A special "snow factory" is therefore used at the Swiss biathlon base in Lenzerheide, which can also work at temperatures above zero.

For Nordic skiing, which mostly takes place at lower altitudes, climate change is a particular challenge, says Riikka Rakic, Head of Sustainability at the International Biathlon Union. With the help of climate data, researchers can simulate how snow reliability will develop over the next few decades. Fabian Wolfsperger from the Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research says that technical snow can compensate for the decline in natural snow quite well - but not on all slopes; it will be particularly difficult for valley runs.