Snow Sports Athletes Call For Climate Action

Professional skier Julian Schütter’s open letter to the International Ski Federation has amassed almost 200 signatures

Read time 2 mins

Published Feb 14, 2023

Base editorial team
BASE editorial team BASE writers and editors who live and breathe adventure every day. We love adventure storytelling as much as we love adventure itself.

Rising temperatures and dwindling snow has meant snow sports competitions have had to be cancelled © Hans-Peter Steiner

The world of competitive snow sports is feeling the impact of climate change more profoundly than ever, with competitions being cancelled due to lack of snow caused by unseasonable temperatures and weather events. Additionally, pre-season training slopes are becoming less available and with an increased risk of injury due to poor quality, or absence of natural snow at competition sites.

FIS (Féderation Internationale de Ski) is the international ski federation that governs alpine skiing as well as sports such as freeride, snowboarding, telemark and all Nordic sports. Whilst the FIS has since taken steps towards becoming climate positive in recent years, activists feel its actions on climate change are too slow and too limited to match the scale of the issue. Austrian professional skier, FIS athlete and Protect Our Winters Ambassador Julian Schütter has penned an open letter demanding more substantial action from FIS. In the letter, Schütter calls for a commitment from the federation to reaching net-zero by 2035, an emissions reduction strategy, the installation of an independently-controlled sustainability department and greater transparency in their climate objectives and operations.

‘Skiing is so much fun for me that in 40 years I still want to be waving in deep powder snow,’ he said. ‘Unfortunately, however, climate change stands in my way. With this campaign, I am using my circle of influence, my influence as a ski racer. In doing so, I hope to inspire others to use the influence on their environment, no matter where or how big their circle is.’

The loss of snowpack increases the risk of injury for athletes on the slopes © Spiess Foto Tirol

snow conditions in most host locations in Europe will be marginal or not reliable as early as the 2050s

A new study has shown that all but one of the previous 21 host cities, Sapporo, Japan, will be too warm and dry to host a safe, fair Winter Games by 2080 if temperatures continue to to rise at this rate. Research revealed that average February daytime temperatures of host cities were at 0.4°C at the games held in the 1920s to the 1950s, to 3.1°C during the 1960s to 1990s games, and 6.3°C during games held in the 21st century, including next month’s Beijing Games. It’s thought that snow conditions in most host locations in Europe will be marginal or not reliable as early as the 2050s, even if overall global emissions are reduced in the meantime.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) have been warned that they will have to be more flexible with their venue choices for future Winter Games, and will have to seek out higher elevations for events such as ski racing.  The last three Winter Olympics have seen significantly higher injury incidence rates among alpine skiing, snowboarding and freeride than in previous years, attributed to poor quality snow (55% higher versus other winter games).

© Spiess Foto Tirol

Schütter’s open letter was delivered to FIS at a press conference in Courcheval following the Men’s Downhill Finals on the 12th February. So far it has received nearly 200 signatures from concerned present and previous FIS competitors, including current alpine racing mega stars Mikaela Shiffrin, Aleksander Aamodt Kilde, Travis Ganong along with Olympic cross-country skiing champion Jessie Diggins, and the previous Freeride World Tour champions Arianna Tricomi and Xavier de le Rue. The letter remains open for signatures, and can be found in full here.

For more information on the work POW are doing, advice on how to become a climate advocate, climate literacy training and more, visit the Protect Our Winters website.

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