Industry News
It was a bitter end for this Austrian ski resort.
The Unterberg ski resort in Austria’s Wiener Neustadt district recently announced its decision to permanently cease operations. The decision, made at the end of the summer, comes after multiple years with little snowfall due to climate change. The resort will not have a 2026-27 season.
“With a heavy heart, we, the managing directors of Schilift Unterberg GmbH, have to announce the final end for our ski area,” the resort wrote in a Facebook post.
In recent years, Unterberg has received little to no snowfall. While it did receive some snowfall last year, it was not significant enough to operate, and the resort was forced to cancel its 2025-26 season. The 2024-25 season was the same situation, and the resort did not open its slopes. With climate change and persistent mild winters expected to continue to affect the resort, it ultimately decided to close permanently starting this season.
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“After the acquisition and rescue of the ski area in 2014 and years of operation for regional winter sports, the consistently mild winters and the noticeable climate change now force us to permanently discontinue the lift operation,” Unterberg wrote. “We would like to sincerely thank our loyal customers, partners in the Pernitz-Muggendorf region, and our great team, who fought to the end for every snowflake, for every step.”
Unterberg is not the first resort in Europe to experience this issue. Lac Blanc in France and Sportbahnen Braunwald in Switzerland both decided to close this past summer due to low snow totals caused by climate change. With climate change showing no signs of slowing down, more resorts will likely be forced to follow suit.
“Alpine tourism is under pressure,” Sportbahnen Braunwald wrote in its closure announcement. “Climate change and shifting consumer behavior are challenging the entire industry.”
According to Florian Pappenberger, Director-General of the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), Europe specifically is experiencing significant effects of climate change. ECMWF reported that at least 95% of Europe experienced above-average annual temperatures in 2025, with heatwaves extending from the Arctic to the Mediterranean. Glaciers across the continent have also felt the effects of climate change, with glaciers in all European regions experiencing a net mass loss, along with snow cover falling 31% below average in 2025.
“Europe is the fastest-warming continent, and the impacts are already severe. Almost the whole region has seen above-average annual temperatures,” Pappenberger said in a World Meteorological Organization (WMO) article.
The WMO’s 2025 report also showed a continuing trend of rapid warming across Europe’s coldest regions, including in the Arctic and the Alps. For low-elevation Alpine resorts like Unterberg, which sits between 700 and 1,400 meters above sea level, even small temperature fluctuations can do a lot of damage. At these elevations, small temperature changes can quickly turn snowfall into rain. Snowmaking windows also become smaller, and over time, operational challenges make it increasingly difficult to stay afloat.
When Unterberg’s owners acquired the resort back in 2014, it was a rescue mission. They were able to take the resort and rejuvenate it, offering 16 kilometers of slopes, four lifts, and a “magic carpet.” But despite the passion poured into Unterberg, it was not enough to overcome the changing weather patterns.
With the permanent closure of its lifts, Unterberg is looking into other ways to use the ski area. Managing director Erich Panzenböck mentioned the potential for hikers and snowshoers to use Unterberg in the future. More details on Unterberg’s future will be released in the coming weeks.
With Unterberg’s closure alongside multiple other resorts, the immediate effects of climate change are starkly on display. Right now, mostly low-elevation resorts are the ones experiencing harm. But as the weather continues to warm and snowfall becomes scarcer, the biggest resorts in the world could see their operations change.
