Save Our Snow: The Green Guide to Snowboarding

Snowboarding is a popular and ever growing winter activity. It has seen much more coverage in the press and is now accepted as an Olympic sport. The general premise around snowboarding is that it’s like surfing with a chair lift. Chair lifts get you to the top of the mountain and you ride down with a sense of freedom, an appreciation of your natural surroundings and an adrenalin rush that keeps you buzzing until you go home.

Much like mountain biking, snowboarding is a low carbon way of getting down a mountain, however there are still several important issues surrounding winter sports: getting to the mountain requires fuel, such as by plane, coach or car; your kit can be made from heavily carbon dependent materials and the places you stay will be using vast amounts of carbon to heat them. All this contributes to global warming which inevitably is making skiing areas vulnerable to changes in temperature. This is causing melting glaciers, less snowfall (especially in lower altitudes), and shorter winters which affect not just the snowboarding season but also the biodiversity, ecosystems and physical landscape of our mountains.

So it makes sense in this article to look at ways to save on carbon when going on a winter sports holiday, in order to preserve the mountains for future riders and also to protect mountains from the impact of climate change.

The Kit

Snowboards

Snowboards are the main part of a snowboarder’s kit. It is strapped to your feet and it needs to be made from lightweight, strong, durable yet flexible materials in order to give a good performance. Usually snowboards are made of wood, carbon fibre, fibreglass, plastic blends and metals – a high carbon mix! Some snowboard makers are now developing new boards made from bamboo, a fast growing plant, making it a sustainable choice. Burton snowboard factory have manufactured their first green snowboard… made from certified wood, recycled steel, and lacquer free materials [1]. The environmentally friendlier options are out there but further research and development needs to take place in order to get an eco board that performs as well as a normal board.

Snowboard boots

Snowboard boots protect and support your feet, ankles and legs from extremes in cold, wet and action. Eco models available on the market are limited and much more needs to be done in this area to improve the sustainability of snowboard boot design. However, more sustainable models include boots made from recycled content. Salomon and Forum offer boots made from recycled materials. Salomon also did well in an independent report looking at the environmental credentials of several suppliers of snowboarding and ski kit.

Layers

Your clothing on the slopes is very important. Every item has to have technical capabilities to keep you warm, fresh and dry. Patagonia offers clothing which conforms to their e-fibers programme – environmentally friendlier fibres – and includes recycled and recyclable polyester, organic cotton, hemp, organic wool and chlorine-free wool [2]. These materials are much less damaging on the environment and also use less carbon in their manufacture.

Wax

Typical snowboard wax is made from crude oil, petroleum, fluorocarbons, PTFE’s, perfluorocarbons, and other toxic chemicals [3]. Once you are on the slopes, these chemicals are being transferred to the snow and then into the waterways after the snow melts [4]. There are natural alternatives on the market including BeaverWax which is an innovative hand poured wax containing environmentally friendly additives [5]. Enviro Mountain Wax also offers a natural wax which won’t damage the mountain environment.

Resorts

Where you stay when you take part in winter sports is vitally important if you want to reduce your carbon emissions. Most chalets and hotels will use vast amounts of carbon to heat and light rooms and cook food. There is also power required for getting food up the mountains, running the chair lifts and gondolas all day and floodlights for night skiing. There are resorts that are committed to lowering their dependence on carbon and some of these have been listed on the Ski Club’s website. They have a green resort guide which shows whether a resort is accredited to ISO14001, recycles, is a green power user, deliberately reduces traffic, has properly managed sewage, has a climate policy or a green building policy. You can also choose to stay in eco-friendly buildings. For example, there is an eco-lodge in Kicking Horse, Canada, which has an environmentally friendly geo-thermal heating and cooling system. This system uses ground water circulated throughout the building to maintain a constant, comfortable temperature [6]. Other examples of greener places to stay include Mayrhofen, whose lifts run on hydro electricity and Avoriaz in France uses bio-diesel fuel in its piste-bashers [7].

Sustainable travel

You don’t always have to fly to your resort. Across Europe you can catch the train. The Eurostar leaves from London and goes to various destinations in France, making it a greener and potentially cheaper option. Plus the views across the mountain ranges are stunning. Another lower carbon alternative is to consider using the train for airport transfers. Trains carry more people than coaches and are less damaging to the environment because of this. There is a small group of UK based resorts. When the weather is cold and snowy, it may be a good opportunity to use the more ‘local’ resorts instead of travelling across continents and sometimes oceans to get to your resort. Glenshee in Scotland is one example of a well maintained resort for which you don’t have to travel outside of the UK. The only downside is that UK resorts are heavily weather dependent and some years there can be very little snow.

More information

“POW was started in 2007 by pro snowboarder, Jeremy Jones who, during winter trips, witnessed first-hand the impact of climate change on our mountains. After having been turned away from areas that had once been rideable and seeing resorts closed due to lack of snow, Jeremy saw a gap between the winter sports community and the action being taken by them to address the problem. Protect Our Winters is the environmental centre point of the winter sports community, united towards a common goal of reducing climate change’s effects on our sports and local mountain communities” [8]. More info here: http://protectourwinters.org
Respect the Mountain wristbands – by purchasing one of these you will be showing your support for tackling climate change and your money goes towards a fund which supports a variety of environmental projects. http://www.skiclub.co.uk/skiclub/eskishop/item.aspx?itemID=53
Ski Club Green Resort Guide – all you need to know about which resort is the greenest. http://www.skiclub.co.uk/skiclub/skiresorts/greenresorts/overview.aspx
Eco Guide to Gear – a green guide to which companies are most environmentally responsible in their manufacture of snowboard equipment. http://www.mountain-riders.org/_EcoGuideMateriel/index.php?lg=en
Glenshee Ski Centre – UK based ski resort. http://www.ski-glenshee.co.uk/