Après ski?

Skiing has become the quintessential winter break. But where will we turn when the snow runs out, asks Ben Tuxworth.

Plug ‘skiing without snow’ into YouTube and you get some thought-provoking results. An ‘old man’ swans past on what appear to be extended roller blades. Lads waterski behind cars; others snowboard down a grassy mountainside, to the consternation of the local goat population. In Israel, a couple of kids practise their skiing on big, wet, sloping treadmills. A man slaloms elegantly down a German dune, part of a sandskiing scene that apparently extends to Morocco, the Great Dunes National Park and even Dubai. Whatever else these vignettes tell you, they certainly seem to confirm humanity’s extraordinary appetite for sliding at speed.

Until a few years ago, finding something like skiing in the summer was a bit of a lark for the off-season. Skiing was the main event – readily available at reasonable proximity to much of the world’s affluent population, and increasingly democratised as more resorts and cheap airlines opened up. But the shocking season of 2006/7 dramatised a noticeable trend away from reliable snow. Doubt crept in; was this the beginning of the end for skiing? And what could replace it?

It’s an interesting question, because skiing is a paradoxical pleasure. It takes you to remote, wild, unspoilt places but is about anything but communing with them. It is marketed as a high-octane extreme sport, but skiers are more often overweight middle-aged folk, for whom skiing is the necessary punctuation in a week of high-altitude hot chocolate, lager and chips.

“Once you get past the snow domes and dry ski slopes (the vegetarian sausages of the skiing world), there are lots of white knuckle rides without the white stuff”

Candidates to replace its visceral excitement are not in short supply. Once you get past the snow domes and dry ski slopes (the vegetarian sausages of the skiing world), there are lots of white-knuckle rides without the white stuff. There’s coasteering, kite surfing, land yachting, grass skiing, sea kayaking and canyoning. Fancy ‘weaselling’, where you struggle around the damp interstices of a boulder field? Or ‘zorbing’, where you climb into a large plastic ball and roll downhill until you get bored, at which point you are joined in the ball by a bucket of cold water?

The question is whether these sports are really in the same niche, and of course whether they will deliver a more sustainable experience. From a business point of view, skiing’s replacement would ideally appeal to all family members, be capable of being packaged up with accommodation and travel, and use existing infrastructure. Diversification seems to be the name of the game, and for once, the place to watch is not Val d’Isère or Zermatt, but Fort William.

Scottish skiing has always been a somewhat marginal activity. Though the season of 2006/7 was not actually quite as bad as in the Alps, there’s no guarantee when or if the pistes will be available.

And even when there is snow, winds of over 40mph blowing straight up the piste can turn the experience into a frozen shove downhill to join the lift queue.

As a result, Scotland has never relied on skiing as the centrepiece of its winter tourist experience. “Last year we had around 84,000 visits for skiing and snowboarding, but that’s against a backdrop of more like 350,000 for winter climbing, mountaineering, caving and potholing – yielding around £25 million for the Scottish economy,” says Jenny Glunoff, Adventure Sports PR for Visit Scotland. “And those figures are dwarfed by walking which generated an estimated £1 billion.”

So are these sports the new skiing? “No – there’s a big overlap, and in fact skiing is also moving in a different direction, with ski mountaineering becoming increasingly popular”. Doesn’t all this stuff sound a bit arduous? “Actually, ski mountaineering could be marketed as a family activity – if you can ski a red run you can ski mountaineer. The great thing about it is that it’s not dependent on the infrastructure, so you can go where the snow is. The Cairngorm plateau is still reliable for snow somewhere throughout the winter.”

Then there’s mountain biking. Many ski resorts have been developing a parallel offer to mountain bikers for a decade or more. It’s already the favoured summer alternate in many of them, and now creeping into the winter season at the lower altitudes. Purpose-made trails offer much of the excitement of skiing without the need for snow, and make use of existing infrastructure for those who don’t fancy the ride up. But it’s noticeable that the mountain biking is marketed separately from the skiing, with very different imagery – dominated by yoof in skatewear flying through the air in full-face helmets. It’s not being made to look like family fun.

With a change of emphasis in the marketing, however, a growing number of mountain biking resorts and companies are now offering something of the packaged experience of skiing. “Fort William has adapted the gondola to take mountain bikes, and now hosts some of the world’s major mountain biking competitions” says Glumoff. And it’s not only for the young bloods. “There’s a growing number of green and blue routes, lots of promotion to the general public and a ‘cyclists welcome’ accommodation scheme where providers prepare for the fact that you’ll be dirty, need somewhere to store your bike and an early breakfast. And it’s beginning to broaden its appeal – including to a group of 50-something women who trained for two years to do the Fort William downhill course this year.” According to Glumoff, mountain biking is already on terms with skiing for popularity among visitors to Scotland, and generated £39 million for the economy last year. “Basically, mountain biking extends the season – employing the same people in similar roles.”

“Well-packaged mountain biking is putting new areas on the tourist map”

Well-packaged mountain biking is putting new areas on the tourist map, too. “Look at what has happened in the Borders,” says Paul Easto, director of Wilderness Scotland, one of a slew of new companies providing a range of activities for people wanting an adventurous holiday. “Mountain biking has turned Glentress into one of the leading tourist attractions in Scotland – from a base of virtually zero in a few years.” The Seven Stanes, perhaps the best-known Borders mountain biking resorts, boast a network of trails set up by the Forestry Commission, with accommodation, equipment and guiding all provided by the likes of MB7, whose rapid expansion has won tourism awards and plaudits from the industry.

“A diversity of wilderness experiences and a tailor-made package will be a big part of the new holiday offer”

Easto thinks that a diversity of wilderness experiences and a tailor-made package will be a big part of the new holiday offer, whether summer or winter. “We’re encouraging people to come to enjoy the mountain environment – in any one of a number of different ways, including ski mountaineering, walking and mountain biking. Cairngorm is rebranding as ‘the national centre for the mountain environment’, and it’s attracting a lot of visitors who want to get away from the roads and the crowds and reconnect with nature.”

On the face of it, this diversification looks positive for sustainability. More exercise, less carbon, less infrastructure. But won’t there be just too many people for these fragile environments to cope? “There have to be suitable paths provided, and the message has to be that if you want to do ski touring you have to do it responsibly,” says Easto. “But we’re still at a pretty low base compared to the Alps, where ski touring is growing fast, partly because of the shrinking pond of high-altitude resorts that can guarantee a reasonable season of downhill. We’ll need to learn from their experience.”

Conversely, the Scottish experience is also attracting international attention for a tourism offer in which adventure meets health meets nature. Norway in particular is closely watching Scotland’s progress.

Internationally, of course, there’s a huge amount of money locked into skiing, so it’s no surprise if the industry’s first line of defence against a shortage of snow is “go higher, fly further” [see box]. And there aren’t many pluses for the environment in that. But Easto meets lots of people, both providers and punters, for whom commitment to the environment is a very important part of a good holiday. “Visit Scotland don’t seem to be very keen to ‘big up’ green tourism here yet, but more and more businesses are signing up to sustainable tourism initiatives, and there’s real passion and commitment to making it work.” Wilderness Scotland’s green credentials are a central part of its offer, and Easto says he’s “very optimistic we’ll end up with a more sustainable product than ever. Though the future is going to be tough, these are really exciting times for tourism in Scotland.”

6 January 2008

Ben Tuxworth