Climate change is threatening the fragile snows of Australia. In a few short years Australians may have no ski-season at all.

Credit: Perisher Blue ski resort

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Fading daylight, crisp morning air, cold sheets at night. These signs can only mean one thing: winter's here and along with it a new ski season. It's hard to control the anticipation of carving turns, bouncing through snow gums, enjoying the beautiful mountain scenery.

Unfortunately this fun comes at a cost. In fact, heading to the snow is not a low-impact holiday - transport, equipment hire, accommodation, lift passes, lessons, and more than one hot chocolate on the slope. But the impact goes beyond your hip pocket as you leave behind more than just tracks in the fresh morning snow.

With the ever-increasing threat of global warming, an Australian snow holiday looks increasingly endangered. But ski resorts are greening up and they're asking skiers to do their bit to make sure there's snow for ski seasons to come.

High altitude impact

That ski resorts are there in the first place means the delicate alpine environment has been altered. Trees have been cut down and slopes graded to clear the way for ski runs; ski lifts and lodges have been built on the slopes; water has been dammed for snowmaking and supplying water to the villages; roads have been constructed for supply routes and masses of visiting tourists. Not exactly low impact.

"If you look at the way the resorts - particularly those in Australia - have been built in the past, they're not particularly environmentally friendly," says Ben Derrick, natural resource manager at the Falls Creek resort in Victoria.

Ski resort development in Australia coincided with the Snowy Mountains Hydro-Electric Scheme, which brought ski-minded European immigrants to the high country in the 1940s and 1950s. Thredbo was one of the first resorts built, opening in 1957.

Back then, says Derrick, environmental consciousness wasn't really at the forefront of resort priorities. The alpine resorts in the national parks "have really been done ad hoc without much appreciation of how they impact the environment."

While the construction of ski resorts invariably damaged the local environment at the time, since the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) took over control of the alpine lands in 1967, operators have had to run the resorts more in line with other national parks.

"Any development has to have an environmental assessment," says Andrew Harrigan, resort manager of the Snowy Mountain region for NPWS. "It's about getting the balance right. No one wants to see significant impact on the alpine environment but no one wants to see the ski industry minimised," says Harrigan.

But even without further development, the impact of ski resorts continues, mostly thanks to the visitors - about 20,000 per day at Perisher Blue alone. Servicing that many people creates a hefty carbon footprint: energy is used for heating buildings and running lifts; diesel wafts into the air from the grooming machines smoothing the runs; greenhouse gases are pumped into the atmosphere by the scores of cars carrying excited skiers to the slopes; water is drawn from the catchments for drinking water and hot showers; and each spring when the snow melts, the evidence of thousands of littering skiers is left on the slopes.

Warming, warning and action

As well as the daily impact, the looming spectre of global warming hangs over the ski industry. Reports by the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development), and the United Nations Environment Program predict some tough times ahead for the sport, with Australia's ski industry predicted to be a distant memory by 2070.

While the CSIRO's short term prediction is a little more positive - resorts will be minimally effected by climate change by 2020, especially if they rely on snowmaking - concerns of climate change has not escaped the attention of ski resort operators.

"In the alpine environment, skiers will see the effects of climate change sooner rather than later. It's really the canary in the coalmine," says Harrigan.

While snow seasons have always been highly variable, the mounting evidence of climate change - including the 1990s being the warmest decade on record - spurred ski resorts into eco-action. In 1996, Aspen, the glamorous celebrity magnet nestled in the mountains of Colorado, was one of the first ski resorts in the world to implement resort-wide environmental policies.

The family-owned Aspen Skiing Company, instituted an array of eco-minded changes, including retrofitting the resort with energy efficient lights, running grooming machines on biodiesel, implementing a green building code and buying wind power credits to match its electricity use.

Their commitment to the environment has even go so far as to reject major suppliers, - such as the tissue giant, Kimberly-Clark - which don't measure up to their environmental ethics.

"[Skiers] are still going to come and visit us," says Matt Hamilton, Aspen's sustainability manager. "Can we offer [skiing] in a way that respects and limits impacts? Yeah."

While their efforts don't exactly offset the heavy carbon footprints of private jet-setting celebrities and the average 1.4 million guests each year, their eco-consciousness did start a trend that resorts across the United States and overseas. At least 20 American ski resorts now offset some electricity with wind credits.

And in 2002, the U.S. National Ski Areas Association and the Natural Resources Defence Council began the Keep Winter Cool program. To date, 185 resorts have signed on to the program, pledging to educate the public on green issues, develop green solutions and persuade the U.S. government to develop climate change legislation.

Back home

In 2006, Australian ski resorts, transport companies and government bodies adopted the Keep Winter Cool program. And the NPWS now requires all ski areas in New South Wales to develop an 'environmental management system', an assessment of the impact of all resort activities - including output of waste, energy and water use.

"If you know what your output is, then you can work to reduce it," Harrigan says. Victorian resorts are following suit.

Rising to the challenge, Aussie resorts are starting to use a slew of green measures: green building codes, renewable power, recycling, waste (and water) management and energy saving measures - such as light switch automation.

Falls Creek ski resort, which has banned plastic bags, has achieved a benchmark 'bronze level' from the Green Globe program, an international group which rates tourism organisations on their sustainability. And they're on track to hit silver in the next year or so, says Falls Creek environmental manager, Ben Derrick.

"We weren't set up well in the past - but looking forward, our goal is to be world leaders in being a totally sustainable community," says Derrick. "We want to make sure we minimise impact as much as we can."

This includes water, considered a precious resource by Australian ski resorts. It's used in snowmaking to supplement the dusting of natural snow that does fall in the mountains down under. In a bad year, such as the 2005 season, skiers would enjoy barely a dozen days of top-to-bottom skiing, rather than about 100 days with snowmaking, says Andrew Ramsey, executive director of the Australian Ski Areas Association.

But even though some 712,000 cubic metres of snow is made each season from water taken from the rivers, about 94 per cent is returned to the system when the snow melts in spring, says Richard Tuck, environmental manager at Perisher Blue.

Because Mt Buller in Victoria doesn't have the same access to water as resorts farther up the catchment, their water needs place a heavier burden on the local supplies. To ease their impact, they've developed a world-first system using recycled water for snowmaking, beginning in the 2008 season - and yes, you can eat the snow, at least not the yellow parts.

While snowmaking plays a large part in the success of the Australian ski season, it also accounts for a substantial slice of resorts' energy needs. "In the good old days you used to know when the snowmaking machines turned on because the lights dimmed in the village," says Euan Diver, environmental services manager at Thredbo.

Resorts are now introducing more efficient machines and computerised programs that which switch on snowmaking only during windows of ideal weather conditions.

On an international scale, Aussie ski resorts fare well on their green credentials. The Skiing Club of Great Britain, which rates resorts around the world on their greenness, shows our resorts consistently getting the tick of approval, almost across the board.

"In terms of providing a barometer of what ski resorts are doing, it speaks volumes for what Australians and resort operators see as priorities," says Diver.

Despite the green kudos, one environmental area that leaves a lot to be desired is transport to the slopes. "The fundamental thing is that when people come skiing it's a long way away from most places and people have to get here somehow," says Perisher Blue's Tuck. And that means cars - lots of them.

While Perisher Blue has closed off private vehicle access to its Blue Cow resort - skiers take the SkiTube rail - there are no other major public transport options. "Unfortunately it's something that would need to be heavily subsidised [by the government]," says Diver.

Sharing the burden

For all the green initiatives the ski resorts are making, resort managers stress that at the end of the day skiers need to take responsibility for their carbon bootprints too. "All those who visit need to be mindful of their impact," says Louise Perrin, environmental manager at Mt Buller and Mt Stirling. "Every action undertaken by an individual counts. Every person who throws a bottle off the lift - that counts."

As well as using stickers, showbags and banners to remind skiers to 'Keep Winter Cool', and 'Don't be a Tosser', Mt Buller has introduced recycling bins at the top and bottom of every lift so skiers won't have any excuses to litter, says Perrin.

"We really need to try to encourage all guests to do the right thing or people will be killing the thing that they've come here for."