| SNOW MELTING? |
15 September 2003 |
| It's not the first report, and it certainly won't be the last. The Daily Express has reported a scientist 'specialising in snow and ice' who predicts that skiing holidays in the European Alps could be a thing of the past – in as little as 20 years’ time. Professor David Collins, a glacial specialist at Manchester’s Salford University, says lower resorts will probably stop being able to offer skiing holidays, while those at higher altitudes will survive only with the help of snow-making machines. The professor told the Daily Express that recent measurements of glaciers show they retreated by record amounts in recent years, and snow-lines have been higher than in previous years. Prof Collins reportedly said: “Any skier can tell you that it hasn’t been a good year". Based on the amount of powder we saw during January and into February, it could hardly be described as a bad season, but in comparison with previous years it certainly was not vintage. Collins goes on to say that the manufacturers of artificial snow machines must be having a field day and predicts a bleak future: "If this trend continues I think we could start to see the
end of the traditional winter skiing break. I am not saying people
won’t be able to go skiing because the higher resorts should
be okay, but it could mean many of the lower resorts going out of
business – and the best time to go skiing will be January and
February.” Mail
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