New snowmaking, refrigeration, snow storage, and unique indoor activities are securing reliable seasons through mid-century
Part One of a Three-Part Series on Sustainability
In the Adirondack and Catskill regions, winter is central to both our identity and our economy. Many of us are closely attuned to how weather shapes each season. This winter has been strong so far, with cold temperatures and consistent snowfall creating excellent conditions across the region. At the same time, we recognize that even strong winters are increasingly variable.
Across the world, winter destinations are facing greater weather uncertainty, with shorter cold snaps, mid-winter rains, and sudden temperature swings all challenging traditional operations. In this little mountain village — long known for its pioneering spirit in winter sports and recreation — the Olympic Authority works in partnership with our community, taking bold steps to ensure our seasons remain dependable, our events remain world-class, and our visitors’ vacations remain exceptional.
When the weather doesn’t cooperate and rain falls instead of snow or conditions change overnight, we choose not to leave our seasons to chance. The key to ensuring the ongoing resilience of our Olympic Village and winter sport venues is to take control of what we can control. With planning and foresight, we are investing in technology and infrastructure that allow us to respond quickly and effectively, no matter what the forecast brings.
Just as important, Lake Placid has become increasingly vacation-proof. Alongside our outdoor winter offerings, we’ve added an array of indoor venues, year-round attractions, and experiences that ensure memorable stays even when conditions shift unexpectedly. This balance strengthens our tourism economy while allowing winter sport — still central to who we are — to thrive with greater predictability.
Solidly Positioned for the Future
We are fortunate our Adirondack North Country winters are expected to stay more reliable than most other regions around the world. A 2022 study established Lake Placid as one of only four previous Olympic Winter Games locations that will remain reliable for winter sport through the middle of this century. Taking into account our mountain climate and anticipated changes in global temperatures, this study also considers the conditions for training and competition identified as necessary in a survey of elite winter sport athletes and coaches.
Despite this reassurance from scientists, we won’t be leaving our future to chance. We’ve added an array of activities and attractions to make all our venues year-round travel destinations and give our seasons balance. But because winter is vital, we are also committed to its preservation here in the Adirondack and Catskill regions and the preservation of high-quality conditions for winter sport and recreation.
Advancing Our Resiliency in the Face of Warmer Winters
Just as it has for generations, our Olympic Region’s prominence in the world of winter sports endures today because our community and Olympic Authority leaders continue to maintain a powerful vision for all we can be and all we can achieve. In alignment with that vision, we engage in thoughtful, ongoing planning and bold action that has our Olympic venues proactively prepared by effectively weather-proofing our winters, our events, and our visitor vacations.
Recent upgrades to systems and operations make it all possible. They include everything from our highly efficient, more powerful snowmaking systems at our ski venues to the advanced new refrigeration systems at both our Olympic Center and our sliding sport track at Mt Van Hoevenberg to even our innovative new technique for storing snow over the summer months for the cross-country trails at Mt Van Hoevenberg and more. All of it helps ensure we are prepared to meet the challenges nature throws at us while maintaining and even growing our winter recreation, sport, and tourism opportunities – the very things that for more than 100 years have made us who we are.
Building Predictability into an Unpredictable World
At Olympic Authority sport centers – Whiteface, Gore, Belleayre, our Olympic Jumping Complex, Olympic Center, and Mt Van Hoevenberg – we’ve had a truly outstanding start to the 2025-2026 ski and snowboard season. But those recent warmer winters? They don’t stop us from getting trails open or ensuring they’re in great shape throughout the season.
Across our ski and snowboard venues, for example, our teams are creating better daily conditions than ever while also achieving greater energy efficiency, thanks to continued improvements in our snowmaking systems and our grooming equipment. Even in unpredictable weather, our teams are creating better experiences for our guests. And not only are our systems far more energy efficient but also our crews are using nearly all renewable energy sources, too. The result is that our ever-vigilant crews are making more snow, making it faster, and making it with zero emissions.
Our teams are also using the cleanest, quietest snow groomers on Earth – the Pisten Bully 600E+ – a hybrid groomer that’s 30 percent more fuel efficient than the best current alternative and meets the most stringent emission requirements in the world for off-road machinery. As technology and scheduled equipment replacement allow, the Olympic Authority is actively transitioning its fleet to ultra-clean, zero-emission electric vehicles.
As reported earlier this year, the team at Mt Van Hoevenberg began piloting a new snow storage initiative that’s proven to be successful, even in this past summer’s warmer-than-usual temperatures. By stockpiling snow and covering it with insulating wood chips, they stashed away 5,000 cubic meters of snow, which was spread across trails in early November, adding to the abundance of natural and machine-made snow delivered by nature and our powerful snowmaking systems. Next season, they’ll store even more snow to keep Nordic recreation thriving in Lake Placid even in the face of unpredictable weather.
Empowering Our Future
It’s always been true that the best way to predict the future is to create it. For more than 100 years, our community has consistently pursued the challenges of achieving global prominence in winter sport on the world stage, and in this bold new era, we continue to strengthen our well-established position.
Snowmaking systems and snow storage are but a part of all that our Olympic Authority teams have already achieved to preserve and weather-proof our winters. With each new season, we take new steps forward to sustain this brilliant future, remaining fully committed to our region’s culture of mountain adventure that’s been our hallmark through many generations.
In the two articles that follow this one, we will detail the steps we’ve taken and the advancements yet to be made as well as the positive action we can all take to help preserve our environment and our winter sport heritage.
Because empowering our future can’t wait, we’re making it happen right here, right now. Thanks to our collective vision, relentless planning, bold action, and lots of good, old-fashioned hard work, our region’s natural beauty and inherent potential in winter sport and recreation will endure well into the future.