ETHICAL TRAVELLER:A LONG SLIPPERY SLOPE should be good for skiers. But environmentally their sport looks more like a rocky road to disaster than a fun day out on the piste.
In the Alps, as in many other mountain areas, glaciers are disappearing uncomfortably rapidly, snowfalls decreasing and many resorts closing because of rising snowlines. Skiers are going higher and higher in search of perfect powder, with the United Nations predicting that Alpine snowlines could rise by 300m in the next 50 years.
Sadly, most people who don their skis in search of "pristine" wilderness are unaware that they play a huge part in the destruction of their winter wonderland. Resort development has been virtually unstoppable over the past 30 years, with piste after piste being cut into untouched ground. With lack of snowfall, thousands of snow cannons have been introduced to create it artificially, ejecting water droplets into the night sky - 220,000 gallons of them to cover an acre - which then freeze and fall to the ground as snow. About half of this water comes from reservoirs, the rest from rivers and local drinking supplies. With 80 million tourists visiting the Alps every year, compared with a resident population of about 16 million, that's a lot of adrenalin junkies' habits to feed.
Ecologists from Mountain Wilderness, a conservation group, have described skiing as the cancer of the Alps. The energy-eating water cannons, heli-skiing and off-piste skiing are top sore points. Not to mention the vast amounts of carbon dioxide from endless flights descending over this chocolate-box scenery.
Keen skiers can do many things to reduce their impact. I struggled to find any Irish ski websites with ethical guidelines, but the Ski Club of Great Britain's Respect the Mountain campaign offers many useful tips, from taking the train instead of the plane to not leaving litter on the slopes. A dropped cigarette butt may look as if it's disappearing, but it will be there when the snows melt - and still there five years later, which is how long it takes to disintegrate. Water bottles take about 1,000 years longer.
Skiclub.co.uk has a guide to ecofriendly resorts, including those with biodiesel piste bashers, solar panels, biodegradable detergents and green waste-water systems.
Many companies now offer low-impact winter holidays. For a Christmas trip to Lapland with a difference, try Aurora Retreat (www.auroraretreat.se). It creates an itinerary to suit your family, including cross-country skiing using traditional wooden skis, igloo-building (and sleeping) and indigenous Sami activities such as felt-making.
Among the big operators, Neilson (www.neilson.co.uk) has one of the best responsible- tourism policies. It uses only locally owned properties and does not offer all-inclusive holidays, encouraging you to bring cash into small rural communities. Responsible travel company Explore (www.explore.co.uk) offers many low-impact ski holidays, from Slovakia to Siberia. Or, for a winter-walking break in the snowy Scottish Cairngorms, learning how to manage ice axes and crampons, see www.responsibletravel.com.
Anyone who has almost wept at seeing the beauty of the Alps for the first time must know that we have to do everything we can to preserve these landscapes. By supporting some of the organisations above, you will add to the much-needed statistics that prove to governments and those who can help stop the destruction on a grand scale that skiers really do care.