On the World Tour
January 29, 2020
Andy Newell has skied at the Olympics four times, giving him his fair share of snow. But he’s also watched the glaciers he’s trained on melt before his eyes.
When Olympic biathlete Maddie Phaneuf traveled to the Italian Alps to race, she expected to see powder. She found grass.
Noah Hoffman raced at Davos, Switzerland, on a course that had thrived with natural snow in the 1970s. He skied on “a ribbon of snow” through the woods.
Sam Shaheen’s memories of endless snow in middle school disappeared as he skied in a college league full of “artificial stuff.”
But Gian-Franco Casper, president of the International Ski Federation, hasn’t expressed much concern. “We still have snow, and sometimes even a lot,” he said.
The story for many professional skiers is the same. The snowy winters they experienced as younger athletes are faint memories. The culprit is climate change, and the responses range from activism to indifferency.
Those fighting back against McCusker and Hess’ high emissions scenario include Protect Our Winters, a nonprofit political action group advocating green legislation. The organization includes an athletic alliance, which has grown to represent nearly 100 athletes.
“POW has done a really great job of bringing together athletes who have the common experience of ‘oh god, something’s going on,’” said Simi Hamilton, three-time Olympic cross-country skier and member of the alliance. “It offers us a platform to share our experiences and share what we see throughout the year.”
While some organizations focus on encouraging environment-friendly personal practices, Protect Our Winters’ efforts center around broader changes in government policy and regulations. They make frequent visits to politicians’ offices. When President Donald Trump invited Olympic athletes to the White House, Maddie Phaneuf was instead representing the organization on Capitol Hill, talking to officials for the second time in her young career.
As an athlete who wants her sport to survive, Phaneuf said she wants to see political change.
“No matter how many U.S. citizens make our carbon footprint smaller, it’s not going to change the effects climate change is having on our planet that much,” Phaneuf said. “We need a systematic change. We need to be voting for people who are going to advocate for climate action.”
Ski resorts and organizations are also trying to hold onto their businesses as the dollars trickle away. In a 2018 study, Professor Elizabeth Burakowski identified a strong positive correlation between a year’s number of days with skiable conditions and amount of skier visits. Because the ski industry accounts for an annual $20 billion, a year with little snow can cost over 17,000 jobs and a billion dollars, the study found.
Last January, the National Ski Areas Association, the Outdoor Industries Association and Snowsports Industries America responded to this threat with the creation of the Outdoor Business Climate Partnership. The Partnership represents industry businesses, including resorts and retailers, in the political arena. Together, the three organizations account for 7.6 million jobs.
“When you speak as the collective voice of an $887 billion industry, it gives your message that much more power,” Adrienne Isaac of the National Ski Areas Association said. “There are so many members of Congress whose constituents rely on outdoor recreation for a vibrant local economy, to put food on their tables, or for their mental and physical health. Our members and our industry are directly impacted by the effects of climate change. It makes sense to band together to underscore the critical need for climate-smart policies at the federal level.”
The goals of the Partnership center around a rapid drop in carbon emissions and a transition to clean energy. In May, the new group traveled to Washington to push for a price on carbon. They are organizing another trip, Isaac said.