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.
