Higher and Higher: Ski Resorts in Fight to Survive Global Warming

[chlamor]

Higher and higher: ski resorts in fight to survive global warming

Critics fear loss of last wildernesses as industry seeks fresh pistes

Ian Traynor in Ischgl, Austria
Saturday March 26, 2005
The Guardian

More than a mile up in Europe's winter playground, the sprawling ski arena of the Silvretta range in the Austrian Alps is criss-crossed by 42 cable cars and ski lifts disgorging up to 20,000 skiers a day on to the 130 miles of perfect pistes.

Planted among the peaks are cafes and restaurants, shops and bars, cash dispensers and open-air concert venues. Alanis Morissette will be yodelling in the snow here next month. Sting, Tina Turner, and Elton John have drawn thousands more up the mountain in recent years.

This weekend the Silvretta is teeming with Easter holidaymakers relishing the snow and the sunshine against the spectacular Alpine setting.

At the foot of the slopes in the Austrian village of Ischgl, the 1,400 natives have never had it so good. This weekend marks the finale to another lucrative skiing season. Over a generation, winter sport has transformed what was a sleepy mountain village into a mass tourism magnet growing fat on some of the highest land and property prices in Austria.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,1445835,00.html

[despairing optimist]

1. I wonder what will melt first, Silvretta or Tina Turner

She must be nearly 70 by now.