Hitting The Slopes? Australia’s Ski Season Could Be Halved By 2050

A new study has found climate change could forever change Australia’s ski season, with less snow for fewer days.

The traditional ski season, from the June long weekend to the October long weekend, is 120 days or four months. This new study has found the season will be reduced to just 55 days by 2050. 

Sam Quirke from Protect Our Winters explains what needs to happen to see ski season lengths recover on The Briefing podcast:

Ski resorts are already having to increase their snowmaking to deal with reduced snow depths, but resorts can only produce so much fake snow. 

Protect Our Winters Lead Advocate Sam Quirke says, “If we can get to a low emission scenario then we can have a 15 per cent longer ski season than a mid emission scenario and it will be 25 per cent longer than a high emission scenario.”

Doubling down on efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions could see ski season lengths recover, especially in lower altitude areas such as Mount Selwyn. 

“The industry has done a great job at prolonging the seasons than we have and growing them in days compared to 50 years ago,”

“In the future we really need to curb global heating by reducing carbon, CO2, global pollution, and climate pollution, and that’s the best chance that our ski resorts have at thriving past 2050.”

Subscribe to The Briefing, Australia’s fastest-growing news podcast on LiSTNR today. The Briefing serves up the latest news and deep dives on topics affecting you, all in under 20 minutes.