fabric-covered snow depot like this ablaze, and
30 firefighters battled the flames for hours. Snow
is that precious these days.
“With the warming climate, everything has
changed,” Brennsteiner says. He started working
here 31 years ago, during what now seem like the
glory years of Alpine skiing.
Alpine winters are dying. Since the 19th
century, average temperatures in these moun-
tains have risen by two degrees Celsius, or 3.6
Fahrenheit—about twice the global average.
Snow is arriving later in the season and melt-
ing sooner. The Alps as a whole have lost about
a month of snow cover, according to scien-
tists who analyzed data from more than 2,000
weather stations.
To many of the 14 million people who live
in one of the world’s most densely populated
mountain ranges, the implications are terrifying.
The economy here depends on snow to lure 120
million tourists a year—far more than visit the
United States. Besides working at Kitzsteinhorn,
Brennsteiner serves as mayor of Niedernsill, a
village of 2,800 at the foot of the mountain.
There’s hardly a family in the village that doesn’t
depend on winter, he says. Without snow, it
might shrink to a thou sand people.
“We wouldn’t have children in kindergarten,”
Brennsteiner says, describing a downward spiral.
“This is the foundation of our lives here.”
To save themselves, the people of the Alps
are going to dramatic lengths. An estimated
100,000 snowmaking machines now power the
Alpine ski industry, enough to blanket an areaSAVING WINTER 65