Colorado’s snow drought deals a major blow to recreation

Colorado's low snowpack

0:00Hi, I'm producer Kathleen Davis, and you're listening to Science Friday. Winter in Colorado looked very different this year. Many parts of the state experienced record high temperatures and record low snowpack. And that lack of snow has had downstream effects on farming, sports, tourism, you name it. So as climate change intensifies, what kind of changes can we expect to see in places that are dependent on snow? And how do we prepare for it?

0:31Here to discuss how this is playing out in Aspen is Hallie Zander, news director at Aspen Public Radio. Hallie, welcome to Science Friday. Thanks for having me. How big of a deal was this winter snow drought? It was one of the biggest conversations we were hearing out here in the Roaring Fork Valley around Aspen. I mean, it was impossible to ignore. Things really got started back in November when the ski season was about to start, and everyone was looking up at the ski hill from town and just seeing dirt.

1:06And we ended the season with, as you said, record low snowpack in Colorado. So it's been something everyone's been talking about. And they're still talking about it. Why? Yeah, I mean, a bad winter has cascading effects into the next few seasons, right? One of the big things right now is voluntary fishing closures. So the state has been asking people not to fish on the rivers because they're lower than usual, which means they're hotter than usual.

1:38And as a result, that stress on the fish, they just can't really survive the whole catch and release process. So that industry's been hit harder than usual. Also, you know, the rafting companies, there's just less places where they can go and operate trips. So it's definitely limiting people's options right now. And I learned a new term through all of this reporting, which was called the snow hangover, which essentially means, you know, a lot of people will try and book their winter vacations in the summer.

2:16But after a really bad season, they might wait it out a little bit longer. So it's still too early to tell if that's what we're seeing here this summer. But it's something people are looking out for. Another thing that's interesting here is that Aspen's a big tourist town. What's happening on the social side? Is there an effect on people's livelihoods because of this? Yeah, I mean, the economy here is really tied to recreation, which means we're really tied to the climate and to snow levels.

2:48So we talked to some business owners who are rethinking whether or not they can continue in the industry. We're hearing from people that have said they're trying to diversify to, you know, to be able to stay in the industries that they love. And that's small and big businesses alike. And we've heard this a lot from a number of people that they wouldn't be able to handle another season like it, or at least not right away.

3:19Like they need some more average seasons to bounce back before they could handle a setback like this again. So I think it's just really making us all question how much we can rely on a steady level of snow to uplift the entire economy. Hallie Zanders, the news director at Aspen Public Radio. Hallie, thanks so much for joining me. Thanks for having me.

Historical snow droughts and ski industry adaptation

3:48So for economies and livelihoods that rely on snow, what happens when snow becomes unreliable? To help answer this, we're turning to the past. Dr. Mike Childers is an environmental historian at Colorado State University in Fort Collins. Mike, welcome to Science Friday. Thanks for having me. Give me a sense, how big of a deal is the ski industry in Colorado's mountain communities? It's a really big deal. For many of the communities in the Central Rockies, it is a good half to 80% of their economy is based upon skiing and tourism.

4:27And so when you have a winter like this, that means you're losing that amount of money right out of the gate. But it is not just the selling of lift tickets and, you know, things on the mountain, but it is everything from the pizzeria to the lodging to the gas station that takes a sizable hit because ski towns are reliant upon that revenue to get them through the majority of the entire year.

4:57Has Colorado dealt with this sort of winter before, like we saw this past winter? Yes and no. We have definitely had droughts, snow droughts in the past that have dramatically impacted the winter season. So, you know, the most notable one is in 1976, 1977. We didn't get snow until after Christmas. Roughly half of the ski industries, their ski mountains didn't even open. And that really hurt a lot of the industry.

5:29How did outdoor recreation businesses adapt? Can you give me some examples? Yeah, it was a couple things. So what the ski industry did was, one, started embracing something called snowmaking, in which when the temperature gets low enough and the ground is frozen hard enough, you can shoot compressed air and water in the atmosphere overnight and make man-made snow crystals. And this allows them to extend their winter season or start their winter season.

6:01So it's a technological insurance policy. On the business side, you started to see the industry consolidate into a handful of corporate-owned ski resorts, like Vail Resorts being the big one in the country. And with that consolidation came with more money to put more amenities to attract more skiers to make sure that if there's any sort of downfall in snow, they can at least withstand that. And that led, in 2008, to Vail launching its Epic Pass, and then its competitor, a company named Altera, launching its Icon Pass sometime later.

6:43And these are, in essence, passes that are subscription services, where for around $1,000 currently, you can get access to ski resorts, not just one, but multiple around the world. But you have to buy those early before the snow even hits the ground. And so the industry has the money already in the bank so they can survive a season like we just had financially. But what we're seeing right now is that fewer passes like this are being sold, or people are buying a different sort of pass because they're pulling back on how much money they're willing to spend on the gamble that next winter will have enough snow for them to go out and ski.

7:34How do you think businesses and economies in these mountain towns might adapt this time around? Are there other ways you might envision that? Yeah. I think a lot of these ski towns and ski resorts and the communities that surround them are going to look to diversify, whether that is they're going to be offering activities that aren't relying on snow. For example, mountain biking has become a huge component of this in a lot of resort areas.

8:05And, you know, if you look at the changes that happened after 1976, that was this one point that led to kind of corporate control of the ski industry, kind of the growth of these towns and the expansion of the region and the state, that this sort of change will happen again. So, that's also going to change what these communities are and do.

Community impact and corporate ski resorts

8:35I mean, how does this affect people's livelihoods? Like, the townies, the people who actually live in these places and don't just come to visit. Right. Yeah. I mean, these are people who are wholly reliant on snow to drive tourism, which then drives not just all of the kind of, you know, restaurants and those sorts of things. But then, you know, we're talking about tax bases for schools and roads and emergency services.

9:05And so, what happens when that goes away? So, it will change things.

9:12How specifically, it's hard to really foresee, but it's going to probably cause, again, another wave of consolidation and maybe kind of corporate ownerships of those little ma and pa shops that we all know and love. Yeah. I mean, I'm getting a read that there's some friction potentially between big ski and the people who actually live in these towns. Is that an accurate read? That's an accurate read. Especially as these two, Altera and Vail Resorts, have continued to buy smaller and smaller resorts in communities across the country and change the very kind of nature of what skiing means to those communities, along with even labor practices and kind of how that's driving the immunization of people like ski patrollers.

10:02So, it's causing a huge friction between who actually gets to control this place and what is this place going to be. And that has always led to issues. But it is becoming a greater issue today. Right. Is there anything about this snow drought that you've experienced this year and its impacts that has surprised you, like moving past the winter and into the summer? Yeah, just how surprising it has been to people.

10:36You know, last winter, every day was like checking the snow report and hoping for snow so we could go skiing, so we could go play. And that narrative has changed and now we're talking about like reservoirs going to Deadpool, why are, you know, golf courses still watering their lawns? So, the narrative has changed and it has, it really caught a lot of people off guard just because we haven't really experienced a snow drought like this for a decade or more.

11:06And so, how quickly we forget, well, it's been really surprising to me. Dr. Mike Childers is an associate professor of environmental history at Colorado State University in Fort Collins. Mike, thanks so much for joining me. Thanks. This episode was produced by Rasha Aridi. And while you're here, feel free to leave us a five-star review in your podcast app of choice. Thanks for listening. I'm Kathleen Davis.

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