Everyone who has ever made a living in winter sports has been trussed and tied to the vagaries of weather. Now, with the reality of global climate change, we are faced with unprecedented climatic challenge. The ski industry has suffered through mild winters with minimal snowfall in the past, but what happens when a season like the one we're experiencing now becomes the norm? Or worse, it becomes a legendary 'old fashioned winter' that today's gromms will reminisce about to their grand kids. "I remember the winter of aught-12 with two inch blizzards every other week for a month! We didn't see bare ground until the end of January!"
The recent 75th anniversary edition of Ski Magazine explored such a future, in which lower elevations of the West and Europe become unskiable. What happens to more elevation challenged areas like ours should be obvious. What's a passionate skier, rider or snowshoer to do? The future outlined in Ski contained solutions like skiing in giant snow globes, a la Dubai, or pursuing winter sports on synthetic surfaces that don't melt or get icy. Like Utah, except there's never a powder day on white astroturf. For myself, I look forward to charging down the Martian slopes of Olympic Mons, the tallest mountain in our solar system. Unlimited year round pow (red dust, actually, that's probably snorkel deep in spots), a third less gravity providing free style possibilities that would humble the best Earth-bound slopestylers ("Bro, I just killed that last 360,000!") and 80,000 feet of vert (think twenty Jackson Holes stacked on top of each other)! Pack your gear and some oxygen, 'cause there isn't much on Mars, and start saving now. I expect it might be a bit pricey.
That's what I thinking about now during an extended January thaw in the middle of a woeful winter. A couple of good powder dumps, however, and bare ground, Mars and Global Climate Change will be temporarily forgotten.
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