The ski and snowboard season, just ending in the Northern Hemisphere, has been a vivid illustration of the havoc climate change can wreak on companies like Vail Resorts that rely on standard weather patterns. The West experienced an apocalyptic level of snow, making ski destinations like Tahoe nearly impossible to reach. Meanwhile, ski resorts in Eastern U.S. and Europe faced snow droughts due to a warm winter, fanning fears that the sport could eventually disappear from all but the tallest mountains in some markets.
Under Kirsten Lynch—Vail Resorts' CEO since November 2021—the company is responding to the climate challenge by diversifying geographically to reduce vulnerability to any one area's weather. For instance, Vail Resorts, which operates 41 resorts such as Breckenridge in Colorado, Whistler Blackcomb in British Columbia, and Stowe in Vermont, bought the Andermatt-Sedrun resort in Switzerland to plant a ski pole in the European market last August. Lynch also has ambitions to expand the Vail Resorts empire into Japan and deeper into the U.S.
