Will skiing survive? Resorts struggle through a winter of climate and housing woes

https://www.npr.org/2022/03/31/ [login to see] /will-skiing-survive-resorts-struggle-through-a-winter-of-climate-and-housing-woe
Interstate 70, which cuts through the Colorado Rockies and its famous ski resorts, was a parking lot on a recent Sunday. It's like this a lot. SUVs with ski racks choke the thoroughfare alongside scores of idling semi-trucks, belching out an untold amount of smog into the pristine high country that everyone is escaping the city to play in.

"Honestly it's ruining the integrity of what skiing should be all about," said Erin Walton, during a pit stop for gas. "We spend more time sitting in traffic than we do on the slopes."

The avid skier - and reluctant driver - says some weekend nights it can take five or more hours just to travel sixty miles. She and others stuck in traffic seemed well aware of the irony of burning fossil fuels to get to skiing that's dependent on cold, snowy winters.

"There's too many contradictory things happening," Walton said. "It makes us sad about the future of skiing and what it's going to mean for people [and] the environment."