Why I’m staying local for my ski trip – even if it means I might miss out on slope time | Canada Voices

As I skied to the bottom of Whiteface Mountain in the Adirondacks, I leaned forward and dipped my head to pick up speed and then quickly leaned back to lift my ski tips so I could skim across a small stream. The water splashed up to my knees.

It was the middle of March, 2023, usually a great time of year to ski because of a built-up snowpack and less chance of frostbite. But the temperature was pushing into the double digits and felt hotter in the direct sun. In the mornings the snow was firm, even icy at the top of the mountain, but by the afternoon, streams and ponds covered the flatter parts near the bottom. Snow from the midway point down was so mushy and dense, like quicksand made of uncooked popcorn kernels, that it was challenging to ski.

This was a shame. Whiteface is usually a terrific mountain. Near the Vermont border in northern New York, it has the highest vertical drop in the East – about one and a half times what Mont-Tremblant has in Quebec and almost the same as Vail in Colorado. It has incredibly challenging terrain, a fabulous learners’ area where my kids took lessons, robust snow-making and is frequented by friendly people.

It is only about a six-hour drive from Toronto, where I live. That means about two tanks of gas for a round trip for my family of four, or about one twelfth of the carbon emissions it would take for all of us to fly to Aspen, Colo., according to Myclimate.org, a Swiss-based website that lets people calculate their carbon footprint. The low-carbon nature of our trip is another reason we chose New York. And while I love skiing the big mountains, Whiteface is more than challenging enough for my kids.

Despite my attempts to “ski green,” however, the effects of climate change nixed some of our ski days. Snow was scarce, temperatures were warmer than usual and there was more rain in Ontario and much of the East.

Is skiing facing an existential crisis? Should my family even bother to book a ski trip this year? Should skiers reconsider how far they travel for powder to slow this man-made catastrophe? Or is travelling far away the only way to ensure decent snow days even if it speeds up global warming? I wondered all this during my three-day Whiteface trip, where we were only able to ski two short days.

Ski resorts try to be sustainable

Most ski resorts see the problem and are taking steps to lower energy use and switch to renewable energy, but that mostly focuses on guests who’ve already arrived at the resort.

“You’re nibbling at the edges, you’re changing your light bulbs and you are doing the things you have some control over,” says Daniel Scott, a professor at the University of Waterloo who has been researching the impact of a changing climate on the ski industry for more than two decades. “But you can’t determine who wants to come to your business.”

For example, he says, Colorado’s Aspen Snowmass resort has been a leader in sustainable skiing for decades, but they face two large problems. They pull from the state electricity grid, which uses a lot of coal, and they have an airport within 10 minutes of its mountains.

A lot of Aspen’s clientele arrive on private aircraft, says Scott. The resort “can’t say no. It’s a free country.”

“When you compare the average carbon footprint of a skier in Aspen versus a Blue Mountain or Tremblant, they aren’t comparable because so many people have flown in there.”

Make it rain (with snow)

Snow-making is essential to most resorts in Ontario, Quebec and the Northeast U.S., as it lengthens the ski season.

But in the last few years, snow-making hasn’t been able to keep up with warmer winters. The increased snow-making expenses and lost skier visits are costing the U.S. ski industry US$250-million a year, Scott’s research shows. And his modelling suggests seasons are expected to get even shorter.

Scott notes that critics of snow-making, who say it uses too much water, miss the point; there would be very little skiing in the East without it and the alternative is that skiers will fly elsewhere. Citing a 2023 paper he co-authored titled Sustainability of Snowmaking as Climate Change (mal)Adaptation: Current and Future Water-Energy-Emissions Associated with the Canadian Ski Industry, he says the carbon emissions from all of Quebec’s snow-making for its six million skier visits is equivalent to 67 people getting on a plane from Montreal to Vancouver to ski in Whistler. “That tells you a lot about the trade-offs.”

Elizabeth Burakowski is a skier and a climate scientist at the University of New Hampshire. She said last season was the warmest winter the state has had since 1896, “and by a lot.”

She says El Niño winters (like the 2023/24 ski season endured) tend to be warmer, but the general trend is pointing to balmier winters. A warmer atmosphere holds more water, which means more rain instead of snow.

My family saw this first hand. For the last two Christmas breaks, we planned to ski in Collingwood, Ont. Both times it rained so much that it either forced the ski hill to close or there were few runs open. Our ski equipment never left the car.

If you can’t ski, explore instead

In New York state, we were supposed to ski for three days, but on the evening of our second day, the rain started and didn’t stop. So, we changed plans. Lake Placid has lots to see around the two Olympics it hosted in 1932 and 1980, and the international competitions that still take place there. In addition to the museum, which includes activities such as a bobsled ride, we toured both hockey rinks (the newer rink was the site of the famous 1980 U.S.-Soviet Union Miracle on Ice game), the cross-country skiing and sliding tracks (where we saw skeleton racers sliding at highway speeds) and the ski jumping facility (the view from the top is spectacular).

My kids, nine and six, enjoyed collecting stickers at all the sites for their mini venue passports and sticking their heads through the photo stand-ins for ski jumpers, goalies and speed skaters. Having all of those activities available certainly helped with the unpredictable weather. Both Scott and Burakowski say providing alternative activities – such as indoor waterparks or rock climbing walls – is another way the industry is adapting to climate change.

But this was supposed to be a ski vacation. My children’s skills weren’t improving by taking tours of sporting venues.

Burakowski recognizes the challenges of a sport she loves. “It’s a cultural tradition. I’m still teaching my kids to ski,” she says. “I’m still hopeful that they will be able to enjoy this sport when they are adults.”

Scott says electric vehicles make it possible to have a net-zero holiday in Quebec and Ontario. “That is the kind of tourism we need to promote and protect.”

On my family’s last day in Lake Placid, as we piled into the car to drive home, it began to snow. Just our luck. So, we talked about where we wanted to ski next year. The Farmer’s Almanac is predicting a La Nina winter will bring below average temperatures and above normal precipitation around the Great Lakes. Hopefully that means more snowfall and less rain than last year.

So far, things are looking up. The first snow was seen at the Whiteface summit in early September and the mountain has already benefited from conditions cold enough to make snow, so it was able to open in mid-November.

When we discussed next year’s family ski trip, Lake Placid was high on the list.

If you go

Lake Placid is about a six-hour drive from Toronto and a little more than two hours from Montreal.

Whiteface Mountain Ski Resort is located on state land and there is no lodging at the base. Most hotels and restaurants are located in Lake Placid, about a 10-minute drive away. In the town, there is a variety of restaurants from breweries like Big Slide, to fine dining, pizza parlours and cozy spots, such as the Cottage at Mirror Lake Inn.

There are a few lodges that are even closer to the base, including the Hungry Trout Resort, where we stayed. It has two restaurants on site, a high-end seafood eatery and the HT Tavern, where we enjoyed delicious fish and chips on our last night. Although we didn’t fish at what has been listed as one of North America’s top fishing lodges, we did enjoy walks along the Ausable River just steps from our room. Rooms go for around $130 at that time of year.

The writer was a guest of the Regional Office of Sustainable Tourism based in Lake Placid, N.Y. It did not review or approve the story.