Switzerland is finding it harder to sell itself as a picture-perfect winter destination. Its highest ski resorts are increasingly the only places offering decent snow. The national pastime of Alpine skiing, still much loved, is becoming ever more expensive.
Ski lifts on your local Swiss hill will soon be a thing of the past. Take Langenbruck. Situated 700 metres above sea level in the canton of Basel-Landschaft, the village’s 73-year-old ski lift faces closure because snow is becoming increasingly rare. The lifts, which take skiers and snowboarders to an altitude of 900 metres, remained shut over the past two winters.
Countless children and teenagers made their first tentative turns on the slopes above Langenbruck. One of them was the now 74-year-old architect Peter Hammer, who now runs the lifts. Hammer’s father was one of those who helped to open the facility in 1952, making Langenbruck the first-ever winter sports destination in northwestern Switzerland. As a child, young Peter used to help out at the ski lifts in his free time. He has continued to work there ever since. “Seeing people happy is my motivation,” he says.
Skiing boomed well into the 1980s in Langenbruck, which is situated only 30 kilometres from the city of Basel as the crow flies. There was still plenty of snow back then, not least thanks to the introduction of an artificial snow cannon in 1978. Floodlit skiing was also popular, giving local snow worshippers the chance to cut shapes on the slopes after work. But mild winters without snow became more common at the beginning of the 1990s. “No one really talked much about climate change back then, but we could sense something was happening,” Hammer told “Swiss Review”.
The number of days on which the pistes were open then dwindled – “from 20 to zero”. Hammer is hoping for a good final season. If Langenbruck is unable to attract a buyer, the definitive curtain call will come in spring 2025. The most galling thing for Hammer is that the lifts are “still in good condition” – and actually licensed to operate until 2031. He wistfully recalls past decades. “Entire families and generations grew up here on the ski slopes.”
Langenbruck is one of many snow resorts to have thrown in the towel. Of Switzerland’s original 545 ski resorts and slopes, some 230 – or 40 per cent – have disappeared. Waning interest in winter sport as well as low profitability have also contributed to lift closures – besides the lack of snow – according to a study by the Technical University of Dortmund. Not all the abandoned ski resorts have been dismantled. Rust-covered drag lifts, broken gondolas and abandoned mountain restaurants tell of what used to be. Their operators have gone bankrupt, leaving behind a derelict infrastructure as well as debt.
Rising temperatures will also become a big challenge for resorts at higher altitudes in the coming decades. On behalf of ski lift operators and the Swiss national tourist board, climate scientists at ETH Zurich have produced forecasts for winters up until the 2050s. They say that the lack of snow in all ski areas below 1,500 metres will be increasingly acute. Winters in Switzerland are now 2.4°C warmer than when records began in 1864, says the ETH Zurich climate researcher Reto Knutti. “We expect a further increment of one degree Celsius by 2050.” Depending on CO2 emissions, the figure could change by one or more tenths of a degree – with corresponding knock-on effects.
If winter temperatures increase by 1°C as forecast, the zero-degree limit – the altitude at which the temperature in Celsius drops to freezing – will be 300 metres higher than it is now. The zero-degree limit is a key indicator for winter tourists, indicating the altitude at which rain turns to snow. It has already risen by 300 to 400 metres since the 1960s, spelling the end for low-lying ski lifts.
Pistes below 1,800 metres will soon be in danger, says Knutti. These areas are also finding it hard to produce artificial snow, because snow cannons only work at temperatures below 0°C. And the number of sub-zero days will fall by 10 to 30 per cent depending on altitude, the climate forecasts say. “It will be too warm for snow cannons, particularly in early winter from mid-November to mid-December.”
Many winter tourist destinations in the Alps are located above the already critical 1,500-metre threshold. Yet even they have had to adapt their strategies to climate change. Of 100 ski lift operators surveyed by the University of St Gallen, over 75 per cent are expecting less snow and shorter ski seasons in the next 20 years. Nevertheless, most believe that skiing and snowboarding will remain popular in future, which is why they are investing even more in cannons that will pump out large amounts of artificial snow in a short space of time. Ski pistes will be relocated upwards, wherever feasible, incorporating additional ski lifts built higher up the mountain.
These plans cost money. Millions of Swiss francs, to be precise. In some cases, foreign investors have come to inject the necessary capital. Two years ago, for example, US company Vail Resorts acquired a majority stake in Andermatt-Sedrun Sport AG, which controls and operates the Andermatt-Sedrun mountain resort situated on the cantonal border between Uri and Grisons. The US ski giant, which owns and operates over 40 ski areas worldwide, also bought the Valais resort of Crans-Montana in 2024. In both Andermatt-Sedrun and Crans-Montana, Vail Resorts wants to invest a total of around 50 million francs in improving infrastructure such as snow cannons, ski lifts, and restaurants. The idea is that other investors will then step in and build their own hotels and holiday complexes at these resorts, attracting wealthy guests in the process.
Other ski resorts are also investing heavily in their infrastructure. Not only has this bumped up energy costs, but visitors now have to pay more to use the ski lifts. Depending on the size of the resort, a day’s skiing or snowboarding costs between 40 and 90 francs for an adult. Some lift operators employ dynamic pricing, which involves adjusting prices based on real-time market demand. Hence, the price of a single-day ski pass can sometimes exceed 100 francs in places like St Moritz, Zermatt or snowboarding mecca Laax.
Laax CEO Reto Gurtner caused a stir last autumn when he said that prices had not yet reached their peak. “In ten years’ time, a day pass in Laax will cost between 200 and 300 francs.” Gurtner believes that resorts offering guaranteed snow will continue to grow in popularity – and enough tourists will be willing to cough up for the privilege. Golfers are already happy to pay up to 1,000 francs a round, he argues.
Winters in Switzerland are now 2.4°C warmer than they were in the mid-19th century. Temperatures are likely to have climbed another degree by 2050. Ski areas below 1,500 metres will then be virtually without snow.
Tourism expert Jürg Stettler from the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts does not expect prices to be as exorbitant everywhere, but believes many Swiss will wonder whether winter sport is still worth the money. “Skiing is no longer the national pastime it was 40 years ago,” he told Radio SRF. About one third of the population still practises winter sport. “But people are heading to the pistes less often than they used to.” For families in particular, winter sport is becoming an unaffordable luxury. If you have two children, the cost of a week’s ski holiday soon adds up to several thousand francs.
Learning to ski has also become less of a priority at school. Annual ski camps were a staple of the curriculum in the 1970s but are now less common than they were. The current curriculum for German-speaking Switzerland merely sets the objective of children being able to move “on sliding equipment”, which can also mean ice skates.
Youth+Sport, the federal government scheme to promote sport, subsidises winter sports camps that attract around 100,000 young people every year. Industry stakeholders also launched the Swiss Snow Sports Initiative in 2014 to attract more children and teenagers to the slopes, with the GoSnow website offering schools and teachers inexpensive winter sports camp packages as well as a diverse range of instructional material. This winter, the platform is organising around 400 camps for over 18,000 participants.
Former ski racer Fränzi Aufdenblatten, who chairs the initiative, says skiing is not only a sport but a part of Swiss culture. She cannot imagine children growing up in Switzerland and not going skiing at least once in their life. “That would be like living in Hawaii but never standing on a surfboard.”
Winters in Switzerland are now 2.4°C warmer than they were in the mid-19th century. Temperatures are likely to have climbed another degree by 2050. Ski areas below 1,500 metres will then be virtually without snow.
“Alles fährt Ski... alles fährt Ski... Ski fährt die ganze Nation” – Vico Torriani’s 1963 hit was the sound track to the ski boom that reached its zenith in the 1960s and 1970s. Nearly everyone seemed to ski in Switzerland back then, thanks to a plethora of ski lifts around the country, not least on minor hillsides. The nearest drag lift was never far away, and almost every schoolchild regularly attended ski camp.
The “golden days of Sapporo”, when Switzerland won 10 medals at the 1972 Winter Olympics in Japan, has pride of place in Swiss ski folklore. Bernhard Russi and Roland Collombin finished first and second in the men’s downhill, while Marie-Theres Nadig won two golds. Switzerland was a skiing nation.
Winter sport – making the nation “fit for defence”
In Switzerland, it was mountaineers who first discovered skis as a useful tool for their expeditions, writes sport historian Simon Engel in a blog for the Swiss National Museum. Switzerland’s first-ever ski club was formed in Glarus in 1893, while the Swiss-Ski Association was established in 1904. At first, skiing was largely the preserve of well-heeled tourists. Sporty upper-class Brits organised races in which the objective was to descend the slope as quickly as possible. Unlike the Scandinavians, they regarded skiing as “downhill only”.
According to Engel, skiing’s “nationalisation” as a popular Swiss sport owed much to the two world wars that brought international tourism to a standstill. To get more Swiss out on the slopes, the federal government and cantons ploughed money into rescuing hotels and mountain railways as well as subsidising ski passes and ski courses. The 1940s saw the first cantons introducing the concept of an annual school break dedicated to winter sport.
The armed forces also played a role. During the Second World War, General Guisan popularised the notion that the mountains and skiing provided young people with the ideal arena in which to develop the physical and moral strength needed for the country’s defence. This concerted propaganda campaign served its purpose, attracting domestic tourists to Switzerland’s ski resorts.
Swiss National Museum blog: www.revue.link/skiing
![[Translate to English:]](/fileadmin/_processed_/3/7/csm_max-spring-3-cartoons-de_3c29839370.png)
Comments