Next week it will snow again, we'll all go skiing and forget this
Yea, mid jan is usually when the real snow season starts in the alps
Switzerland: snow flown in by helicopter in attempt to keep ski slopes open
81–90 of 180 posts
Re: Switzerland: snow flown in by helicopter in attempt to keep ski slopes open
#82Earlier quoted context omitted.
You realize there are entire towns and villages whose lives depend on this tourism, right? I'm not saying it's a perfect solution to fly snow in, but you can't discount the impact this has on the population if the resorts close down.
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Re: Switzerland: snow flown in by helicopter in attempt to keep ski slopes open
#83Earlier quoted context omitted.
Like coal plants, they’ll end up needing funds to transition to a new normal going forward. The next 100 years won’t be like the last 100 years.
I’m not giving funds to rich ski towns.
It’s not for the wealthy, it’s for the working class. Of course don’t compensate asset price destruction due to climate change except for those who have limited means.
In my coal plant example, workers are typically close to retirement and have limited means. They aren’t financially independent, so they need something to bridge the gap between this painful transition and death. I apologize that wasn’t clear in my original comment.
Help those who need the help, but let the wealthy take the L.
Re: Switzerland: snow flown in by helicopter in attempt to keep ski slopes open
#84Why is Switzerland so hot? I know climate change is a thing, but many other countries are receiving a lot of big snow falls. What's specifically going on in Switzerland? Jet stream weirdness allowing warm air further north?
Yes, the jet stream is currently making whole central europe very warm, since before christmas.
Re: Switzerland: snow flown in by helicopter in attempt to keep ski slopes open
#85Why is Switzerland so hot? I know climate change is a thing, but many other countries are receiving a lot of big snow falls. What's specifically going on in Switzerland? Jet stream weirdness allowing warm air further north?
This is not limited to Switzerland, but to all the alpine regions in Europe; i.e., also France, Germany, and Austria. Only northern Italy seems to have faired a little bit better, but that is just meteorological luck.
Re: Switzerland: snow flown in by helicopter in attempt to keep ski slopes open
#86Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't think it's problematic at all. It looks to me a reasonable and proportionate investment that supported a large number of local, seasonal jobs. Amortize that fossil fuel consumption per capita -- one helicopter, over thousands of vacationers -- and it's an absolutely trivial amount. In terms of pure numbers, most HN'ers did far "worse" things on their most recent vacation, even if it were a short car trip.
If you're open to taxing for carbon footprint (to put it loosely), and it seems that that's your argument, you'll find that ski trips are going to be very costly, even more so when adding the cost of generating snow.
Ski trips are already very costly? And people pay it.
Re: Switzerland: snow flown in by helicopter in attempt to keep ski slopes open
#87Why is Switzerland so hot? I know climate change is a thing, but many other countries are receiving a lot of big snow falls. What's specifically going on in Switzerland? Jet stream weirdness allowing warm air further north?
https://www.severe-weather.eu/global-weather/winter-season-2...
This Polar Vortex weirdness is what I've been hearing about.
Re: Switzerland: snow flown in by helicopter in attempt to keep ski slopes open
#88Am I right in thinking that Gstaad is like the Aspen of Switzerland, one of the richest ski resort towns? Is this why they can get away with helicoptering in snow?
Switzerland is a rich country, and just about every ski resort is outrageously expensive (think 14 euro for a beer, 35 for a pizza, 150+/night for a hotel, 50+/day slopes). So financially, they can definitely get away with helicoptering in snow. The most exclusive ones are probably St. Moritz, Zermatt and Lech, not so sure about Gstaad.
Gstaad is 'exclusive'. It probably isn't so well known, but it has very expensive resorts and hotels, like https://www.thealpinagstaad.ch/ and its own private bank https://www.saanenbank.ch/ and the centre of the village has a lot of luxury shopping. It is definitely up there in terms of destinations for UHNW people. However I don't think it attracts quite such a percentage of "can afford to go but not ultra high net worth" people, which is much more true of Zermatt, Verbier, St Moritz etc.
Re: Switzerland: snow flown in by helicopter in attempt to keep ski slopes open
#89Its not good for the environment. is it?
Re: Switzerland: snow flown in by helicopter in attempt to keep ski slopes open
#90Earlier quoted context omitted.
I’m not giving funds to rich ski towns.
It’s not for the wealthy, it’s for the working class. Of course don’t compensate asset price destruction due to climate change except for those who have limited means. In my coal plant example, workers are typically close to retirement and have limited means. They aren’t financially independent, so they need something to bridge the gap between this painful transition and death. I apologize that wasn’t clear in my ori…
"It’s not for the wealthy, it’s for the working class."
I think the swiss working class is a bit better of, than those in the subsahara facing drought.
They are in the need of transition funds.
I also think it would not be helpful to ban helicopter snow transport or something populistic, but it is really not smart, trying to keep things artificial alife - like certain wintersport areas - by means that contribute to the problem.