Well, I do understand that many people worldwide still don’t believe in global warming. And who knows, they may or may not be right. While most scientists think all the research is pointing towards it, there are still sceptic people who don’t believe. But I leave it to John Oliver to discuss this.
What is becoming clear even to the biggest sceptic in Germany is that having a decent winter ski vacation is becoming more and more difficult. I spent last week in beautiful Bad Tölz with the hope for powder. The idea was to take a bus or the train to a nice ski region close by. Now, turns out that I went hiking along the Isar instead, with the temperature around 10°C. For good skiing, I’d have to travel far and go high up. Way more expensive than I had budgeted for.
Ok. This could be an exception. And next year will be just fine. On the other hand, I’m tracking ski-lift operation in Rhön now since a couple of years on my website. And guess what: Last year was a wash for the operators, and this year looks even worse.
Just when I drove back from Bad Tölz a statement from the German government became public. According to them only one out of ten ski regions in central Europe will be snow-safe in the coming years, and about two thirds of all the ski regions won’t survive, even with artificial snow.
Good that I didn’t buy new skies.
We had a similar experience this past winter here in Ontario, Canada. Our annual tradition of taking the kids tobogganing with the grand parents in Ottawa was modified this year to be a hike instead. There was absolutely no snow when we visited in late December, 2015.
In the Toronto area, we had a disappointing winter with very little snow. There were a couple of times when there was a decent snowfall, and happy children building snowmen and snow forts could be seen throughout the neighbourhood. However, it all melted a few days later.
The ski conditions were correspondingly poor. Following one of the big snow dumps when the slopes were finally decent (for a short time), some friends drove up to Blue Mountain. They discovered that they were not alone in their thirst for snow as they found themselves in a 2 hour line up just to buy a lift ticket. After waiting 1 hour, they realized that the chair lifts lines were also gigantic, so they gave up and went home.
Here’s hoping for longer lasting snow next season!