Skiing without snow, ghost-town resorts and repurposed ski jumps?
Climate change, and the warmer winters it will create, has cast doubts on the future of winter sports as we know them.
Winter snow sports are facing an existential threat, industry experts say, with new data showing the most recent winter of 2049 was the warmest on record in both the northern and southern hemispheres.
The rise in temperatures caused unprecedented cancellations of both skiing and snowboarding events across the globe and just last week, Chamonix in France became the latest former Winter Olympic host city to announce a partial closure of its facilities.
The town was the location of the first ever Winter Olympics, in 1924, and is being seen as a hugely symbolic loss to add to what some say is worrying news around record seasonal temperatures.
“There was so much pride in the history we have here and it is with a very heavy and sad heart that we now feel we have to re-purpose much of our winter sports facilities,” the town’s mayor Veronique Badeaux told the BBC.
“The continuing climate change has meant that our winter season has shortened dramatically year on year, this season saw a thawing midway through the season with rain affecting snow quality too.
“With temperatures higher, even the use of fake snow becomes difficult and although technology has improved and is powered by renewable energy, we just couldn’t justify the water usage when other parts of France were experiencing drought during the summer.”