Everything you need to know about skiing and other Alpine winter sports
There’s a Swiss guy called Laurent Vanat who does comprehensive analysis of ski industry trends every year. The data from 2021/2 is illuminating:
Small resorts make up 87% of resorts but only 26% of attendances.
A paper in “Nature Climate Change” explores the impact of climate change on European ski tourism and concludes that, without snowmaking, 53% and 98% of the 2,234 ski resorts studied in 28 European countries are projected to be at very high risk for snow supply under global warming of 2 °C and 4 °C, respectively. Assuming a snowmaking fractional coverage of 50% leads to corresponding proportions of 27% and 71%, but with increasing water and electricity demand (and related carbon footprint) of snowmaking.
The implications for many Alpine communities is quite stark. Summer tourism will become more critical to their sustainability. Typically many close down for visitors in Spring and Autumn, but the loss of a winter season may make many choose to try and extend their Summer season.
For skiers and snowboarders, this will mean that higher resorts will attract more visitors, but presumably this will drive up prices. And it will hardly contribute to reducing the carbon footprint.
In truth the golden age of ski package holidays has gone. Fewer people make this choice for their winter holidays and the demographic of those who do is aging.
Back in the early days of winter sports tourism, people took the train to the Alps and, without lifts and pistes, would walk up the mountains and ski down through unprepared snow.
In an age of climate change, it is likely that the future of skiing will lie with ski touring and ski mountaineering. If this is your bag, or you have an interest, I recommend you consider joining the Eagle Ski Club, a UK-based club whose members are devoted to these sports and provide the means to begin participating in them.
And remember to take the train! There is a list of Alpine resorts with railway stations: at the Snow and Rail website.
You can be forgiven for not having come across Maloja as a ski destination, but it was once once of the most feted resorts in the world.
The heart of Maloja for the visiting winter tourists was the Palace Hotel, built in 1884 and equipped with emerging technological advances such as electricity and elevators. It is still in operation today, but its hay day was between the world wars.
Maloja was host to many ski races, such as the 1929 British Ski Championship. It was also a centre for ski touring around the Engadine. The still very active UK-based Eagle Ski Club, which specialises in ski touring and ski mountaineering, was founded at the Maloja Palace Hotel in 1925.
So why have you never heard of Maloja?
The main reason is that it only has a 2km piste served by a solitary surface lift. At the height of its popularity ski runs were neither pisted nor lift- served. The nearby resort of St Moritz was well established and, as ski tourism developed in the area, its better facilities, access and higher runs dominated winter sports activity in the area.
The Maloja Palace also suffered declining fortunes and lost its allure compared to the hotels of other Engadine resorts, such as St Moritz, Celerina and Pontresina – all of which are easier to get to from the UK and Northern Europe.
Maloja was also popular when winter sports represented a very different set of activities than occurred after World War 2. For generations of skiers from the 1950s onwards, the only winter sport they were likely to participate in was a form of skiing dominated by lift-served downhill slopes with prepared surfaces, increasingly at giant, linked ski areas. For Britons, this coincided with increasingly affordable air tickets and package holidays, and a consequent burgeoning interest in winter holidays.
Very unlike the winter sports scene before World War 2.
In the twenties and thirties skiing was at the heart of many controversies. One concerned ski racing, where there was divided opinion between Alpine nations, Britain and the Nordics over the validity of different competitive disciplines. Many purists also decried the introduction of mechanical lits and prepared pistes. Essentially the early development of recreational skiing was associated primarily with something akin to a mixture of cross country skiing, ski touring and ski mountaineering, whilst winter walks, skating and tobogganing were available for the less adventurous winter tourists.
Despite its failure to matchthe expectations of most skiers, Maloja remains popular for ski touring and its cross-country ski trails. It also marks the start of the Engadin Skimarathon, which attracts thousands of enthusiasts every March.
I am not sure it is the oldest ski club in the world – I believe the Davos Ski Club might have that distinction, but no other ski club has been continuously in operation longer than the SCGB. The founding meeting famously occurred in the Café Royal, in London, on 6th May 1903.
At it’s peak the Ski Club had representatives and offices across Europe and a stately headquarters in Eaton Square. Many famous names in the evolution of skiing were intimately associated with the Ski Club, such as Sir Arnold Lunn, and many people distinguished in other fields held high office, notably past president, Air Chief Marshal Hugh Dowding.
The Ski Club has continuously adapted in its long history and still has over 20,000 members and an active presence in leading ski resorts. it also operates a successful holiday operation and has one of the best ski web sites around. The current president is the Olympic skier, Chemmy Alcott.
The Club operates out of more modest premises these days, not far from the Oval in London. However it’s rich history has been retained and is largely in the custodianship of de Montford University in Leicester, where 50 linear metres of archived material are held. Together with Professor Peter Slee, Vice-Chancellor of Leeds Beckett University, I am hoping to ensure that we can ensure that the heritage of the Ski Club, and indeed Britain’s contribution to the evolution of skiing, is maintained and, with both the risks and opportunities of the digital age, is made more widely available for members, researchers and anyone else who is interested in the history of this incredible sport.
Watch this space!