52
MLCM
FALL/WINTER2016
huge fluctuations in weather,” he says. “If you put these
weather events in the right order, the results can be huge
avalanches. The winter of 2013/14 showed us what kind
of activity an extreme melt-freeze cycle followed by a
six-week drought and capped off with a couple metres of
snowfall can produce.”
In February 2014, BC’s Coquihalla Highway was closed by
successive avalanches that, according to the BCMinistry of
Transportation, ran on slide paths that had never reached the
road in any of the 27 years that the highway has been open.
“If the future holds more extreme weather, then these
major avalanche cycles might increase as well,” Hillier says.
Rising to the Challenge
Of course, a single bad winter does not make a trend,
but according to Chris Steinkamp of Protect Our Winters
(POW), everyone needs to be preparing for more winters
like 2014/15, not fewer. Protect Our Winters is a non-profit
organization founded by snowboard legend Jeremy Jones to
“mobilize the outdoor community to fight climate change.”
Steinkamp says, “Based on what we know from the science
and research, winter is going to become warmer, wetter
and shorter over the next decade or two,” he explains,
pointing to a report his organization co-released in 2015
with the United States environmental policy powerhouse,
National Resources Defence Council. “The challenge for us
now is how bad are we going to let it get?”
Steinkamp and POW have been working with ski resorts
to tackle climate change on both an adaptation and a
policy front. It hasn’t been an easy path, but across North
America, Steinkamp is seeing some resorts start to take
the challenges seriously, likeWhistler Blackcomb.
The UNMeteorological quote at the top of this story
comes from
ConflictedObsessions,
a video inWhistler
Blackcomb’s “Big Picture” series that examines some of
the issues, as well as the future of winter sports.
“How can we keep doing what we passionately love to
do, but in a way that the planet can be healthy?” asksWB
Planning and Environmental Manager Arthur De Jong in the
video. “It’s not healthy right now, that is the challenge.
This is not about future generations; this generation has to
resolve this question.”
The answers won’t come easily, but Whistler appears to be
taking the questions seriously. Dave Brownlie, President
and CEO of Whistler Blackcomb, says sustainability is
being “incorporated in all aspects of business” with a
“team dedicated to achieving the highest possible levels of
sustainability across all areas of the organization.”
TOP
On a good year, Brohm is a ski touringdream.
ABOVE
Nice views towake up to. CHRISCHRISTIE
