By ZACH FENT and EMILY FOWLER/Montana State News
February; Love was in the air, but the snow wasn’t.
The trend of falling snow levels and rising temperatures in and around Bozeman has many people in the resort community worried.
People from all over the world flock to the Big Sky country to spend time on the snow-glazed slopes of the Gallatin Valley. Blue-bird days with the sun shining, grabbing a beer slope-side in the ski-in-ski-out shacks with friends and enjoying the luxuries that the resort life offers is what winter in Montana is all about. For so many, it’s a way of life.
Some are beginning to wonder, however, just how long the utopia of winter recreation will last.
Courtney Burns, a senior at Montana State University, is one of them. “I worry for the future of the ski industry and the local shops’ business, of course, but mostly, I worry about the future when I have kids and want to bring them skiing here,” said Burns.
“If Big sky doesn’t have reliable weather and a consistent snow, I think the people who reserve hotels and tickets a year in advanced will stop doing it,” said Burns, “and I already know people who have stopped. That’s not good for our economy, and I hope the cost doesn’t get pushed onto us through higher ticket prices.”