Carving Out a Greener Future: How One Swiss Ski Resort Is Fighting Climate Change

The Swiss ski resort of Laax is working hard to fight climate change. Located high in the Alps at about 2,000 meters, the resort still gets plenty of snow for now. But leaders there know that warmer winters are putting ski resorts across Europe at risk. So Laax has made a bold promise to become completely carbon neutral by the year 2030.

To reach that goal, Laax is cutting out all oil use and switching to clean, renewable energy. The resort is also using electric machines to groom its ski slopes and making snow without adding any chemicals to the water. These steps have pushed Laax ahead of most other ski resorts in the world. Many people in the ski industry are now watching to see if Laax's plan will succeed.

The man leading this effort is Reto Gurtner, 71, the CEO of the Flims Laax resort. His father built the first ski lifts in Laax back in 1962, when it was a small, poor mountain village. A trip to California in the 1970s changed Gurtner's outlook on life. While studying at UCLA, he discovered skateboarding and loved its creative, free-spirited culture.

Gurtner returned home with a snowboard and big ideas. He and friends hiked to a glacier and built the first halfpipe using only shovels. At first, locals pushed back — ski shops refused to sell snowboards and farmers were upset about mountain bikers on their trails. Over time, though, Gurtner's open-minded approach caught on and gave Laax a unique identity.

One of the resort's most exciting new projects is a smart gondola system in the nearby village of Flims. Instead of sending empty gondola cars up and down the mountain all day, a computer program sends them only when skiers need a ride. This on-demand system saves a lot of energy and makes the mountain trip smoother and quieter. It is a small but powerful example of how technology can help the environment.

Local guide Doris Rellstab led a snowshoe hike to a high snowy valley called Segnes, at 2,100 meters. The jagged peaks above, known as the Tschingelhörner, hold a famous geological secret. Older rocks sit on top of younger ones there — something scientists once could not explain. The answer turned out to be that an ancient African tectonic plate slowly slid over the younger European plate, flipping the normal order of the rocks.

Wildlife is also coming back to the area around Laax. Rellstab pointed out the tracks of a snow hare and noted that wolves and lynxes have returned to the Swiss Alps. The first Alpine wolf pack appeared in 1993, and by 2021 more than 250 wolves were living there, growing at about 25% a year. Switzerland, which once had no wolves, now has around 40 packs.

On the ski slopes, man-made snow kept the runs open even as the surrounding meadows turned green. Laax makes its snow using water powered by hydroelectric energy and adds no chemicals to it. Electric grooming machines are also now available, making the whole process much cleaner. This shows that snow-making does not have to be as harmful to nature as many people once believed.

At the foot of the mountain, the quiet village of Falera offers a different kind of green future. There are no cars in sight — just old wooden barns and neat stacks of firewood. An electric bus connects Falera to Laax, moving almost silently through the evening air. The village seems to show that a slower, simpler path can also lead to a cleaner world.

That evening, a check of a local wildlife tracking website brought a big surprise. A security camera had spotted a wolf just one mile away, only hours before. Back in Laax, electric cars moved quietly through the streets with hardly a sound. The scene was a powerful reminder that climate change is reshaping the world in unexpected ways — and that places like Laax are working hard to adapt.