Paper short abstract:

This paper explores the relation between retreating glaciers, snow cover and skilled labour in a glacier ski resort in the Austrian Alps. It discusses the effects of climate change on both, the snow- and icescapes and the skilled workers as well as the coping strategies being deployed.

Paper long abstract:

This paper explores the relation between retreating glaciers, snow cover and skilled labour in a glacier ski resort in the Austrian Alps. Ski resorts are contributing in a substantial way to the tourist economy in Austria. Moreover, the Alpine landscape with its white peaks along with skiing as a popular sport have become essential signifiers of national identity after the end of World War II. However, both snow tourism and identity are facing challenges today because dramatic and rapid changes in snow and ice are occurring due to the effects of global climate change, among others. Although glacier ski resorts in Austria have been affected by retreating glaciers since the 1990s, they are considered as the sole remaining "future snow reservations" by scientists and tourist managers. However, I will argue that such future models do hardly correspond to the experiences of skilled workers in Austria's highest glacier ski resort rising to elevations of more than 3.400 metres. Based on my anthropological fieldwork on this glacier ski resort, I will illustrate how retreating glaciers and melting permafrost are affecting the landscape and the workers of the glacier ski resort. These profound changes of snow- and icescapes are countered by a contested snow and ice management which involves the intensive deployment of technology, geo-textiles, costs and labour as well as the extensive use of water and energy. Finally, I will point out how these experiences of troubling weather are also generating specific work ethics and subjectivities.