8/13/2019 News Clipping of Ski Climate Event Coverage

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,Climate change:poses threat toX-country sportAn Ecology Ottawa volunteer has asked expertsto talk about the effect of warmer wintersand less snow, ROBERT BOSTELAAR writes.Tat joke about anadahaving10 months of winter and two months oftough sledding is evaporatipg fast.Recent blizzards notwithstanding, the trend is towardwarmer winters and a lot lesssnow - meaning, amongo_ther things, fewer opportanities for skiing and similarcold-season sports that helpdefine the Canadian winter.Ottawa, by some dire predictions, could by mid-century have no snow at all - aBrospect that has spurred a~ n e l discussion Wednesday evening on the future of

w and skiing in a warmer-..yorld. Top athletes and a climate scientist will join win rsports operators to look atthe implications of steadily incireasingtemperatures.:The speakers: Patrick Biggs,Ganadian slalom champion;Stephan Gruber, a CarletonUniversity mountain environments scientist; Dirk VanWijk, chief of cross-countrygrooming for the Vancouver0lympics; Bob Sudermann,Jwner of the Camp Fortunecj.nd Mont Ste-Marie resorts;a,'nd Renee Bellehumeur, senibr manager ofGatineau Park.4 s well, Sara Renner, 2006Qlympic silver medallist ind):'oss-country skiing, will jointhe discussion by Skype.Charles Hodgson, a voluiltber with the Ecology Ottawagroup and organizer of thediscussion, spoke to the Citiien s Robert Bostelaar aboutIs hopes for the session. Thisis an edited version of theirdonversation.rWhy have this panel now?: I ve been concerned aboutclimate change for a number of years, but it was a reI:lort that the National Capi al Commission had done afew years ago on what climatedhange would do to its operations that really perked upmy ears. Last fall I listenedto a podcast called MountainMeltdown that had the CEOfrom Whistler and an author from Powder Magazineand a climate scientist talkingabout the future of skiing andI hought: That s a great modEf l I m going to try to replicatethatDo the recent old-timewinters take some of thewind out of the predictions?

People thiilk that, '.Ah there slots of snow, that means we renot going to lose snow Butusually when people look at

weather history, they look ata 30-year period. On average,we re getting less.What can future skiersexpect?Gatineau Park is one of theplaces I like to go skiing. Lastyear, as you mentioned, we gota lot of snow. One of the thingswe got was this major stormthat closed all the ski trailsbecause it knocked down allthe trees and they ran out ofbudget to clear those trails. fthat s one of the effects, howmany years are they going todo that before they stop clearing the trails altogether? Soit s hard to know exactly howit will affect (future skiers),but it is having an effect andit s not a good effect.Of climate issues to keeppeople awake at night, theimpact on skiing might notrank high. Is this a way toprompt a broader discussionon how to prepare for bigchanges?

Absolutely. That s whatgrabbed me - when you thiilkof your own life, and suddenly there s something that youlike to do and it s threatened.In the scenario that GwynneDyer talks about in his bookClimate Wars, it s apocalyptic. Who wants to sit downand thiilk about that? Whereas a threat to something that spersonal, like a recreationalactivity, that s maybe something that s a little easier tostart with.Will there be Warren Millerski-adventure movies?No, but I did find some oldfilm - evidently my grandfather was one of the firstpeople in Canada who had an8-mm camera. Just as peopleare sitting down in the room,I ll be playing film of myfamily skiing in the 1930s.The 30s? Cool.

That s the thing. Here ssomething that my parentsdid, my grandparents did, Idid, .I taught my children todo, and I m looking at the possible end of that activity, so itmeans something.I YOU GOThe panel discussion beginsat 7:30 p.m. at the CanadaAviation and Space Museumon Aviation Parkway and willbe followed by questions fromthe audience. Admission isfree but attendees are askedto register in advance atecologyottawa.ca.