Gondolas on demand, electric piste-grooming and chemical-free snow cannons \u2013 how Laax is \u2018greenstyling\u2019 its future<\/p>\n
It\u2019s the worst ski resort nightmare: hillsides of shaggy yellow grass streaked with slush under a leaden sky that\u2019s coughing up sleet. Parts of Europe \u2013 places previously accustomed to crisp snow fields and pristine blue skies \u2013 are now facing this calamity, something meteorologists might describe as a\u00a0British winter.<\/p>\n
Not everywhere, of course. Only lower altitudes are seeing such disasters. Higher up, normal service continues. I\u2019m in the Swiss resort of Laax, where most of the slopes are at about 2,000 metres, lofty enough to be snow-secure, for now. The halfpipe is busy with dudes in baggy trousers and headphones nonchalantly practising their double corks. On the traditional pistes there are four-year-olds who could probably ski before they could walk. And then \u2013 Switzerland has its wacky side \u2013 three young men in first-world-war greatcoats on antique wooden skis propel themselves with rough-hewn quarter-staves.<\/p>\n