A Winter Olympics Built on Artificial Snow
The 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics are unfolding against a backdrop that would have been unthinkable a generation ago: nearly every competition surface depends on artificial snow. The host region's natural snowpack has thinned dramatically in recent decades, and organizers have deployed an armada of snow cannons to keep courses viable. It is a vivid illustration of a dilemma confronting the global ski industry, one that researchers at Oxford and Trento universities have quantified in a project called Hot Snow.
The Numbers Behind Snowmaking
Across the Alps, artificial snowmaking now consumes approximately 2,100 gigawatt-hours of electricity per season, roughly equivalent to Milan's entire annual residential power consumption. In Italy alone, ski resorts use an estimated 100 to 150 million cubic meters of water each winter for snowmaking, matching the yearly consumption of one to 1.5 million people.
At the resort level, snow production accounts for 30 to 40 percent of total energy costs. Italian resorts collectively spend 50 to 100 million euros per year powering their snow cannons, and those figures are climbing as warmer temperatures force machines to run longer and harder to produce the same volume of snow.
The Lock-In Effect
Paolo Aversa, who leads the Hot Snow project, identifies a dangerous feedback loop he calls the lock-in effect. Resorts invest heavily in snow cannons, water reservoirs, and grooming vehicles. Those investments must be amortized over many years, creating financial incentives to keep snowmaking going even as climate projections suggest it will soon become unviable at many altitudes.
To service the debt, resorts raise prices. Ski pass costs have climbed roughly 40 percent since 2021, increasingly restricting the sport to affluent consumers. Each price hike narrows the customer base, which in turn demands further investment in premium experiences and infrastructure, deepening the lock-in.
An Expiring Industry
Aversa describes affected resorts as an "expiring industry," one that can appear economically healthy today while facing a clear climate-driven end date. Italian resorts below 1,000 meters have already effectively abandoned consistent winter operations. Climate models project that the viable snowmaking window will shrink further as temperatures rise, and when the tipping point arrives, the transition is often abrupt.
Resorts that have sunk millions into snowmaking infrastructure are left with stranded assets, roads and pipelines that no longer serve a purpose, and the mountain communities that depend on ski tourism face sudden economic shocks.
Technology Is Improving, but Not Fast Enough
Snowmaking systems have become more energy-efficient over time, with production optimized to exploit the coldest possible weather windows. Some experimental systems can theoretically produce snow at ambient temperatures as high as 20 degrees Celsius. But efficiency gains are being outpaced by warming. The fundamental thermodynamic requirement remains: you need cold air to make snow cheaply, and cold air is becoming scarce at the altitudes where most European resorts operate.
Adaptation Without Illusion
Researchers do not argue that artificial snow is useless. In the short term, it has kept many resorts open and preserved thousands of jobs in mountain communities with few alternative employers. But they caution against treating snowmaking as a long-term solution that allows the industry to avoid harder conversations about diversification.
Some resorts are already pivoting toward year-round mountain tourism: hiking, mountain biking, wellness retreats, and cultural events that do not depend on freezing temperatures. Others are investing in snowmaking as a bridge strategy, buying time to develop new revenue streams before the snow window closes for good.
The lesson from the Olympics and from the Hot Snow project is the same: artificial snow is a powerful tool, but it is a tool with an expiration date. The resorts that thrive will be the ones that use the time it buys to reinvent themselves, rather than doubling down on a climate bet they are increasingly likely to lose.
