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Photo: ©iStockphoto.com/Jon Faulknor

DURING Arthur De Jong's 26 years at Whistler Blackcomb, north of Vancouver, the ski resort's mountain planning and environmental resource manager has watched the Horstman Glacier shrink.

Radar measurements have revealed that the 37.5-hectare glacier has lost about nine percent of its mass in the past decade. Blackcomb, the resort's other glacier, is retreating at about the same rate.

"Climate change is staring us in the face," says De Jong. "The glacier is important to us, and we need to have a quick response to its retreating."

So the resort is embarking on a steady battle to preserve its glacial assets. A row of three-metre-high wooden barriers has been erected on the ridge above Horstman to slow the wind passing over the glacier and to force snow to drop onto it, adding thickness. If Horstman shows signs of a renewed retreat, 24 snow-making guns are being designed to bulk it up.

Whistler Blackcomb is not alone. As average global temperatures rise, many ski hills are relying increasingly on snow-making systems and are searching for other ways to halt glacial retreat. Last summer, a resort in Andermatt, Switzerland, wrapped the Gurschen Glacier in 3,000 square metres of white foil to slow down melting.

While De Jong is keeping an eye on that experiment, industry observers are watching what happens with Horstman. "This is a forerunner for what we will see elsewhere in the country," says Shawn-Patrick Stensil, an energy expert with Greenpeace Canada. "Climate change will be a growing threat to the winter sports and tourism industry in the decades to come."

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