Alpine resorts' snowmaking equipment may be put to work fighting summer forest fires

ADELBODEN, Switzerland (AP) — There's barely any snow in sight above Adelboden in the intense August sunshine, never mind skiers. But the Swiss resort may have a new way to put its snowmaking equipment to work as Europe bakes through hot summers: helping douse forest fires.

Glaciers in Switzerland and around the Alps have been retreating rapidly in recent years, among other changes attributed to the impact of climate change caused by human activity. Snowfall has become less frequent and reliable over recent decades.

That's a big issue for a mid-altitude ski resort like the Adelboden-Lenk area, whose roughly 200 kilometers (125 miles) of slopes span an altitude between 1,000 and 2,300 meters (3,280 and 7,545 feet). These days, an estimated 70% of the snow on its slopes is made artificially.

Snow cannons and lances are the visible part of the snowmaking network. But much of it is out of sight: dozens of kilometers of underground water pipes that could prove useful beyond the winter months as the risk of wildfires grows even in places such as Switzerland’s Adelboden-Lenk ski area.

“We can help firefighters with our infrastructure," said Jürg Klopfenstein, who is responsible for the resort's snowmaking operations. "Not primarily with our snow cannons, which can mainly be used to water the fields or aim them at surrounding infrastructure. But firefighters can use our infrastructure, and helicopters can refill their tanks using our water reservoirs.”

Those reservoirs collect rainfall and melting snow in the warmer months, and the water is used to produce snow during the ski season. The pipes and pumps connect 210 snow cannons and 50 snow lances in the Adelboden-Lenk area. In case of fire, the system could be used to create wet buffer areas, slowing the advance of flames and buying time until emergency services and air support arrive.

So far this year, Switzerland hasn’t experienced large-scale fires, unlike some of its neighbors. But the country is suffering from drought and the authorities assess the risk of wildfires as high across almost the entire nation, including the Bern region where Adelboden is located.

Like many other mountain areas, the Bernese Oberland isn't just a winter destination but attracts many mountain bikers, hikers, runners and paragliders in summer.

Stefan Buchs, the operations manager at the Adelboden-Lenk resort, said that different types of vegetation and different levels of soil humidity mean the large and frequent forest fires seen in southern Europe can't be extrapolated directly into a similar risk in the Alps.

But even so, “widespread wildfires are a likely scenario," he said. “We discussed this with the firefighters, and they recognized it already. They see that humidity is a real problem. It gets really dry even in the spring. Not just in the summer.”

Adelboden Mayor Willy Schranz said that “we must be prepared, because I am sure it won’t be the last summer like this one.”

A climate change expert with environmental group Greenpeace, Nathan Solothurnmann, cautioned against overestimating what putting a snowmaking system to work against wildfires can achieve in the long run and in a wider context.

“This watering system that they’re planning in Adelboden might for sure help for a while," he said. “But of course the changes we're facing (are) much worse. All those types of adaptations, they just help for a while.”

"In most parts of Switzerland, there are no pipes buried underground that we can use when a forest is burning,” he added.