Part II - Adapting to a Melting World: Reinventing Life and Tourism in the Alps

The Alps are warming twice as fast as the rest of the planet. As the ice disappears, mountain communities are learning to adapt in ways that mix resilience, creativity, and denial. The question is no longer whether the Alps can survive as we know them, but how people who depend on them will choose to live. In this second part of his Vanishing Heights series, Edward Girardet explores realities, options and solutions. You can read Part I Vanishing Heights - The Alps in Retreat HERE.

When the Ground Itself Shifts

The thawing of Alpine permafrost is undermining more than mountainsides. From high-altitude dams to cable-car pylons, the very foundations of modern infrastructure are literally softening.

“Rising thaw will reach two metres deeper than before down to bedrock,” warns a Swiss geothermal engineer from Sion. Looking across the Rhone Valley, he shook his head. “The Romans knew better. They built where the ground stayed firm. We keep forgetting that we cannot control nature; we can only cope and adapt.”

Insurance companies have begun quantifying the danger. AXA Re warns that landslides could overwhelm reservoirs, triggering “lake tsunamis” like the 1963 Vajont disaster in Italy that killed 2,000 people. Roads, tunnels, and viaducts are being reevaluated; some may need billion-franc reinforcements just to remain safe.

A Crisis of Seasons

Global warming is squeezing the Alps’ most famous industry: winter tourism. Once cold, reliable winters are shrinking. Since the 1970s, the snow season has shortened by roughly 47 days. Resorts below 1,600 metres can no longer count on snow at all.

“Families will find fewer low-cost places to learn skiing,” predicted Professor Rafael Matos-Wasem of HES-SO Valais back in 2017. His warning has become prophecy.

Skiing the Matterhorn glacier, an increasingly challenge prospect.

Photo: Swiss Tourism

Even high-altitude resorts like Crans-Montana and Zermatt, where day passes now cost 70 CHF (88 USD/75 Euros) or more, are feeling the pinch. Artificial snow has become both lifeline and liability: it consumes massive amounts of water and energy, while its granular texture betrays its origins.

As one mountain guide from Zermatt recently told Swiss radio: "Everything has changed. We're still doing winter and summer glacier skiing, but before, when you walked up, you would find snow up a third of the way. No you have to climb twice as far."

Crans-Montana with ski runs as high as 3,000 metres will continue to function - but at a cost. More and more of its clientele will consist of well-heeled elites determined to continue skiing.

Photo: Crans-Montana Tourism

The Business of Reinvention

To survive, the Alps are learning to diversify. “Winter sports will have to change,” says Christophe Clivaz of the University of Lausanne’s Institute for Geography and Sustainability. “Switzerland finally understands that adaptation is not optional.”

Resorts are rebranding themselves as year-round “mountain destinations” rather than ski meccas. They are trading lift lines for hiking paths, yoga retreats, and bike trails. Warmer summers in the cities are actually driving visitors uphill, creating a new sources of semi-permanent tourism.

Ironically, climate change may be reviving the Alps’ summer season. Melting glaciers are expected to form 500–600 new lakes, while vineyards are climbing higher up the slopes.

Gondola expansion in the French Alps - year-round tourism on the rise.

Photo: Avoriaz Tourism

The Savills Ski Resilience Index now rates resorts not only for snow reliability but for their flexibility. U.S. winter sports icons Aspen and Vail now top the latest ranking pushing Zermatt from first into third place, but European Alpine stalwarts, such as Verbier, St Moritz, Saas Fee, Val Thorens, and Cortina, still score high thanks to altitude and ingenuity.

Nonetheless, there is also the belief that no resorts can continue as before.

Winners, Losers, and “Technical Madness”

Hydrologist Carmen de Jong of Strasbourg University is blunt: “Traditional Alpine ski tourism will end before 2050. What we are seeing is technical madness - new glacier projects ignoring the climate crisis.”

In 2025 she told a CIPRA conference that snowmaking has reached an ecological tipping point. “Half the water used for artificial snow is lost. It’s time to build tourism in harmony with local customs and nature.”

Yet construction or new forms of revamping continue. Seventeen new snow-making systems - pumps, storage ponds, pipes - were approved in Tyrol alone between 2024 and 2025. In Italy’s Cortina d’Ampezzo, preparations for the 2026 Winter Olympics include lifts deliberately constructed in known landslide zones – disasters caused by poor planning are nothing new in Italy - and water drawn from fragile aquifers.

Cortina d’Ampezzo - site of the 2026 Winter Olympics.

Photo: Cortina Tourism

Re-imagining the Alpine Year

Not every community, however, has given up on balance. Riederalp, the resort of my childhood, now markets itself as a multi-season destination. Two decades ago, it built a nine-hole golf course, at the time a scandal to purists but now a symbol of pragmatic adaptation. The Tourist Office evens offers a public “sports box” lending free rackets and balls on trust.

[Photo 5: Riederalp’s free-to-public sports box, a very Swiss form of tourism based on trust.

Photo: Edward Girardet

As part of its educational outreach, organizations such as Pro Natura are reaching out to both young and old to help the public better understand the issues at hand. As Pro Natura's Thomas Flory maintains, "we are encouraging a 'soft' form of tourism. The Villa Cassel centre is only open in the summer, and we do not take part in mass tourism events during the ski season which lead to a negative environmental impact."

Pro Natura, which celebrates its 50th anniversary at the Aletsch in 2026, seeks to promote initiatives such as more local produce reliance, energy efficiency, public transport rather than the car, and to do "the last kilometer" by foot.

"Our educational approaches combine personal experiences with classic themes such as biodiversity and the impact of climate change on glaciers," added Flory. "The key is to focus on the outdoors, such as school excursions, enabling young people to observe wildlife or to have workshops exploring the natural history and culture of the region. For this reason, we regard the Villa Cassel as a sort of 'lighthouse' to help propagate these themes."

Thinking out of the box to cope

Leukerbad, famous since Roman times for its thermal baths, has gone carbon-neutral by re-using geothermal heat to warm schools and community buildings. Its baths operate 365 days a year and anchor a calendar of cultural events from literature and music festivals to wildlife walks, yoga weekends, and e-bike tours. While its decision to re-invest massively (200,000 CHF per inhabitant) in its hot baths facilities led to bankruptcy back in 1998, looking back it proved to be a necessary albeit costly decision.

Leukerbad's massive investment in its all-year bath facilities resulted in bankruptcy in 1998, but may have saved the resort.

Photo: Leukerbad Tourism

“The idea is to focus on activities people can do all year, even in bad weather,” one tourism operator told me. “We need to think regionally, not just about one resort.” This means hooking up with nearby towns and resorts so that visitors can do day – or evening - trips within easy travelling distance to visit sites, such as Sion’s historical castle or Roman museum.

Pedalling into the Future

E-bikes, too, have transformed the Alps. I recently drove up to Erschmatt, a small mountain village near Leukerbad, and passed groups of retirees pedalling effortlessly uphill from the valley floor, an unthinkable sight a few years ago. “The mountains are more accessible than ever,” a 73-year-old from Château-d’Oex told me. “We can finally reach the high trails again.” (See Global Geneva article in biking in the Alps)

Bike paths are multiplying, while safety has improved although Switzerland still languishes noticeably behind Germany and Austria in dedicated bike trails and lanes.

Biking in most weathers in the Alps.

Photo: Eddie Andrews

Oddly, too, Swiss Rail's SBB/CFF charges extra for bicycles or does not have sufficient space unless previously reserved. “This is precisely the opposite of what we need,” complained a cyclist at Lausanne station. “They should encourage people to leave their cars behind.” When I talked with an SBB/CCF director about this, he admitted that it was a problem. “We’re still very much behind on what needs to be done,” he said.

The New Mountain Tribe

A new class of part-time residents is also changing Alpine life. Professionals with flexible jobs now split their weeks between Geneva or Zurich and mountain towns like Gstaad or Chamonix, working remotely but skiing, or biking, over lunch. “I trade the city commute for clean air,” one banker told me. “I’m up early for the stock markets and on the slopes by noon.”

Gstaad calls this Alpine authenticity: a slower, healthier rhythm that appeals to both elites and families. “People come for our preserved environment,” says Kerstin Sonnekalb of Gstaad Tourism. “Since Covid, ecological awareness has deepened.”

The clearly marked yellow hiking trail signs are to be found all over Switzerland.

Photo: Edward Girardet

Travel, Carbon, and Conscience

The pandemic has also reset travel habits. While pre-Covid strategies targeted long-haul visitors from China, Brazil, or India, many resorts now rely on Europeans staying closer to home. While international arrivals topped 20 million in 2024, domestic tourism is also surging ahead.

“People are realising that their own home countries, such as France and Switzerland, are beautiful and worth getting to know,” said a Swiss Tourism official in Bern. With the stress of flying to places like the Maldives or Bangkok, many prefer to take the train, drive or even bike to holiday points less than two or three hours away.

Another noticeable attraction are the traditional pilgrimage routes such as the Via Jacobi through the Alps from Lake Constance to Geneva as a part of the Camino de Santiago, which also crosses France into Spain. Lined by churches, monasteries and chapels, it offers a remarkable hiking experience along historic paths through a diverse cultural landscape.

“People do not necessarily do these treks in one go, but maybe spread them over weekends or short holiday periods,” explained the Swiss Tourism official.

Given that vacationers often try to crowd their winter sports into a short holiday period, notably Christmas, some resorts are now seeking to cap day passes to curb overcrowding; others promote “off-peak” holidays to reduce pressure and emissions.

Most European countries stagger their school holidays depending on regions so that summer and winter holidays are not stifled by oversaturation. But peak period overcrowding involving high costs and the difficulty of finding accommodation remain serious problems in many parts.

Lausanne University’s Christophe Clivaz urges travellers to come by train and rent equipment locally. “Cars pollute twenty times more than anything else,” he told me. “A train holiday is not just greener, it’s calmer.”

Lessons Beyond the Alps

Can the Alpine experience guide other mountain regions from the Pyrenees to the Himalayas? “The phenomena are basically the same,” noted Matos-Wasem. “But the impact differs with each stage of tourism development.”

The Alps have long been Europe’s water tower; the Himalayas serve a similar role for Asia. Both now face the same reckoning: how to preserve ecosystems while offering livelihoods to those who call the highlands home.

Eco-trekking initiatives in Pakistan, India and Nepal already draw inspiration from Alpine models: small, locally run lodges offering simple comforts and income for villagers. Afghanistan sought to do the same, but increased repression by the Taliban has tended to stifle international tourism although some foreigners are increasingly taking the risk.

Success, however, will depend on awareness. As scientists maintain, host populations and visitors must both understand the impacts of climate change. They must also contend what to do about them.

Mountain climbing is rising in popularity, but people need to be properly trained and accompanied.

Swiss Alpine Club

A Future Carved by Adaptation

Even as the glaciers retreat, there is life and imagination in the Alps, whether paragliders rising on thermals above the Rhone, hikers tracing old mule paths, or children going on nature walks with their teachers or summer camp counsellors.

Rock climbing, too, is picking up as a sport, but not always in the direction that Mountain Rescue Associations would prefer. The Alps are literally booming on social media with influencers, some experienced, others not, highlighting often risky but photogenic activities on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube.

Magnus Midtbø, one of the best known YouTubers promoting mountain activities, undertook a completely unprepared solo climb of the Matterhorn, with unfamiliar equipment which he presented as the most dangerous mountain in the world. By October 2025, it had already chalked up nearly 2.4 million views.

While Midtbø admitted that his venture was perhaps idiotic, the Swiss Alpine Club severely criticized him and other such influencers for promoting climbing as not being dangerous. "While we are passionate about climbing, we want people to be properly prepared," said one senior member. "Mountain climbing is always dangerous."

Paragliding over the Rhone Valley: the new freedom of the heights.

Photo: Edward Girardet

The mountains are changing, but they are not necessarily dying. Their resilience mirrors our own capacity to evolve, if we choose to. But this means the willingness to adapt, to change and to embrace what needs to be done if we are to become more sustainable in our approaches.

Looking out from Riederalp today, I see not just loss but possibility. The Alps that shaped my childhood are still here, but they re-inventing themselves one season at a time.

End of Series – “Vanishing Heights: The Alps in Retreat” & “Adapting to a Melting World”

Edward Girardet is a foreign correspondent and author based in the Lake Geneva region who has covered wars, humanitarian crises and environmental issues for more than 40 years. His current work is now focusing more on Alpine and Mediterranean concerns.