Climate change and Summit County vacation homes; how will we be affected?

Oct 15, 2009 | No Responses

There has been a lot of speculation as to how global warming will affect the ski business.  I first heard about the possiblity from Auden Schendler who is the Director of Sustainability for Aspen Ski Company.  He spoke at the Rocky Mountain Resort Association meeting I attended in Sun Valley Idaho, in January, 2007.  Aspen, being at much lower elevation than Summit County, could be among the first ski areas  to have a shorter season as the climate changes and temperatures warm.  They have been aware of the potential for change for a long time and have been working very hard to have a more positive impact.     With today being Blog Action Day, I thought it would be a good time to address how it might affect vacation home owners and locals in this beautiful place we call our home or our second home. 

At 9-10,000 feet above sea level, Summit County ski areas are less likely to feel the effects as quickly as ski resorts at lower elevations.  Still, the prognosis is not good, and we are told that as the climate gradually warms, our ski season will start later and end earlier.  The good news for Summit County vacation home owners is that we will still be skiing, and we probably will have more people wanting to rent our homes and condos.   As our summers get longer, I doubt that many people will complain.  They are too short anyway!

In December of 2008, Mark Williams, a geography professor at the University of Colorado at Boulder, and Brian Lazar of Stratus Consulting Inc. of Boulder performed a study of Aspen and Park City Utah, using weather information and general climate circulation models.  Among their conclusions was the following:

The key to the survival of the larger ski areas in the Rockies is adaptation, said Williams. Ski resorts must expand operations to higher elevations and more northerly parcels of land. They also must beef up gondola transportation systems to shuttle large loads of skiers efficiently from base areas with scant or no snow to snow-packed facilities located at higher elevations, he said.

That seems to be exactly what Breckenridge has been doing!  Arapahoe Basin recently expanded the size of their skiable terrain with the addition of Montezuma bowl and Copper Mountain has plans for more snow making.   

Summit County residents have always been very environmentally aware.  We make sure that we recycle and we take our reusable grocery bags to the store with us.  We wish our visitors would be as careful.   We use energy efficient cars and our free bus service uses bio diesel in the busses. 

Of course, we need to do more.  I know there are people who disagree with the premise of global warming.  Personally, I would rather assume it is fact and help to avert the crisis rather than say it is all untrue and find out 50 years from now that it really was happening and I had my head in the sand!