Brandon Donnelly
Daily insights for city builders. Published since 2013 by Toronto-based real estate developer Brandon Donnelly.
Brandon Donnelly
Daily insights for city builders. Published since 2013 by Toronto-based real estate developer Brandon Donnelly.
It was pure luck, but we couldn't have timed this last week any better. It started snowing in the mountains around Salt Lake City on Tuesday, and it felt like it didn't stop until Saturday. On Wednesday morning, which was peak powder, the main resorts were reporting anywhere between 23" and 30" of fresh now. It was the stuff of magical dreams.
But snowfall is, of course, highly variable. SLC is having a record year, whereas many resorts in Europe weren't able to open until mid-January because of a lack of snow. And from a macro perspective, things are generally getting worse. According to this report, for every one degree increase in the world's average temperature, global snow cover is reduced by about 8%.
What this mean is that, even in low emission scenarios, many of the places that previously hosted the Winter Olympics, may struggle to do so again in the future because of "non-reliable" snow cover. Freestyle ski and snowboard, for example, typically wants a minimum of 1 meter of snowpack as a base, and sometimes more if melting is expected.
Things do not look positive for Vancouver, Garmisch-Partenkirchen, and even Chamonix in the below chart. (And as a further blow, the authors of the report also don't know how to spell Vancouver.) Naturally, this is something that you might want to consider when looking at long-term investments that are dependent on fresh snow.
It was pure luck, but we couldn't have timed this last week any better. It started snowing in the mountains around Salt Lake City on Tuesday, and it felt like it didn't stop until Saturday. On Wednesday morning, which was peak powder, the main resorts were reporting anywhere between 23" and 30" of fresh now. It was the stuff of magical dreams.
But snowfall is, of course, highly variable. SLC is having a record year, whereas many resorts in Europe weren't able to open until mid-January because of a lack of snow. And from a macro perspective, things are generally getting worse. According to this report, for every one degree increase in the world's average temperature, global snow cover is reduced by about 8%.
What this mean is that, even in low emission scenarios, many of the places that previously hosted the Winter Olympics, may struggle to do so again in the future because of "non-reliable" snow cover. Freestyle ski and snowboard, for example, typically wants a minimum of 1 meter of snowpack as a base, and sometimes more if melting is expected.
Things do not look positive for Vancouver, Garmisch-Partenkirchen, and even Chamonix in the below chart. (And as a further blow, the authors of the report also don't know how to spell Vancouver.) Naturally, this is something that you might want to consider when looking at long-term investments that are dependent on fresh snow.
Regular readers of this blog will know that this happens each and every year, provided a global pandemic isn't currently underway. Last year we went to Park City and this year we're off to Lyon and Les 3 Vallées. Is there anything better than urban + mountain? I don't think so.
This year's is also unique in that I selfishly upgraded it into a slash bachelor party for myself. And that's why I'm calling it the 13th annual, plus.
So what should you expect on this blog for the next 10 days or so?
You should expect more travel, food, and snowboarding-related content, as well as more photos. I generally never travel without my Fujifilm. I'm also thinking about experimenting with more real-time posts, and possibly even multiple posts per day. Basically something more akin to a social feed. We'll see if that happens.
Regardless, if beautiful European cities and sublime mountains aren't your thing, you may want to check back in early February for our regularly scheduled city building programming.
Photo by Inés Álvarez Fdez on Unsplash
You can, however, ignore Sochi in the above chart. Because this was never a great place for the Winter Olympics and it's unclear to me why this place was ever chosen (other than for presumably nefarious reasons). It's like: "We are one of the largest and coldest countries in the world. We have a lot of snow in Russia. But for fun, let's choose one of the few places with a sub-tropical climate."
Excluding Sochi, though, this is an alarming chart.
Regular readers of this blog will know that this happens each and every year, provided a global pandemic isn't currently underway. Last year we went to Park City and this year we're off to Lyon and Les 3 Vallées. Is there anything better than urban + mountain? I don't think so.
This year's is also unique in that I selfishly upgraded it into a slash bachelor party for myself. And that's why I'm calling it the 13th annual, plus.
So what should you expect on this blog for the next 10 days or so?
You should expect more travel, food, and snowboarding-related content, as well as more photos. I generally never travel without my Fujifilm. I'm also thinking about experimenting with more real-time posts, and possibly even multiple posts per day. Basically something more akin to a social feed. We'll see if that happens.
Regardless, if beautiful European cities and sublime mountains aren't your thing, you may want to check back in early February for our regularly scheduled city building programming.
Photo by Inés Álvarez Fdez on Unsplash
You can, however, ignore Sochi in the above chart. Because this was never a great place for the Winter Olympics and it's unclear to me why this place was ever chosen (other than for presumably nefarious reasons). It's like: "We are one of the largest and coldest countries in the world. We have a lot of snow in Russia. But for fun, let's choose one of the few places with a sub-tropical climate."
Excluding Sochi, though, this is an alarming chart.
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