Snowboarding
It’s Not Shaping Up to Be A Good Year for Snowboarding
If it’s snowboarding in your neck of the woods, you might live in the only place on earth where it is. Here in Ontario, the rain is back in a big way. Moostone remains open, but I can’t imagine the conditions are good at all; Blue Mountain still reports two runs open, which isn’t worth getting out of bed for.
A little east of here, conditions are slightly better; while Tremblant hasn’t seen much snow, at least it’s been cold enough to make some. Jay Peak looks okay, but could really use a dump. Killington looks okay (and boy, do they have a nice website).
If you read this site, I don’t have to tell you that conditions in Whistler are epic. Sunshine Village out in Alberta just got some powder, too.
Down south, it looks like El Nino might keep things dry, even though most Colorado ski areas had a decent opening. Jackson Hole is hoping for snow soon, as its snowbase is starting to shrink (and it looks like they might get their wish this weekend).
Across the pond, things are downright ugly. Upcoming World Cup competitions in France and Austria have been canned due to a lack of snow, and a warm spell throughout Europe has a lot of people worried. At a recent European development conference, it was revealed that banks in Switzerland are already refusing to loan money to ski resorts located below an altitiude of 1,500 metres, apparently concerned about their future viability because of global warming. Ouch.
Check out my post from last month for some additional unhappy details regarding global warming’s effects on snowsports.
Of course, it’s important to remember that it’s still early season. Most resorts don’t see their best snowfalls until January or February. But the fact that Europe can’t seem to buy a snowflake right now is not a good sign for the future of snowsports.
You can help an increasingly dire situation by praying to Ullr, the Norse god of snow and/or winter (or so everyone tells me). You can also check out keepwintercool.org to get involved.
Discussion
No comments for “It’s Not Shaping Up to Be A Good Year for Snowboarding”
Post a comment