I don't have a particularly strong emotional attachment to skiing. Actually, my brief encounter with the sport as a boy would have made a great clip for one of those "send in your home movies" type shows - with a spectacular high-speed tumble and resulting wrenched knee. But, I've found that those that do frequent the slopes are often beyond passionate about the sport.

As far as early indicators go, ski resorts are to industry what frogs are to the animal kingdom - both are among the first to suffer from environmental changes. It doesn't take a lot of looking to discover a great deal of concern from ski resort investors and management all over. Snowfalls have been arriving later and melting sooner, and snowlines are year by year settling at higher and higher altitudes.

Due to copyright, I won't place it here - but take a look at the graph at the bottom of this page. For the region in France it covers it shows that, as far as snowfall is concerned, "What was, between 1960 and and 1988, considered an exceptionally poor season has [now] become the norm."

Summer skiing in some European resorts has been reduced or stopped altogether, as this report from SaveOurSnow.com shows:

Italy's Marmolada glacier will no longer open for summer skiing, the latest in the toll of Europe's glacier ski areas to cease offering summer snow sports. The decision follows this summer's announcement by Alpe d'Huez in France to suspend summer skiing for the forseeable future and that of the glacier at Les Diablerets to only offer cross-country skiing on its glacier. Other resorts that have stopped offering summer skiing in recent years include Alagna, St Moritz and Verbier. Last summer Marmolada, along with other Italian summer ski resorts Passo Tonale and Val Senales were forced to close following poor snowfall in winter 2004-5 followed by high summer temperatures. Milan University based geologist Walter Maggi has blamed global warming. He said there was no longer any point for him to take groups of students up to study the glaciers because, "there is not much left for them to study." Mr Maggi believes that Italy's glaciers have halved in size over the last 150 years but believes that the process has accelerated markedly in just the past three years.

Because of the rapid retreat of it's glacier, one Swiss resort has even taken the drastic measure of wrapping it with an enormous 'fleece' to protect it from the sun's UV rays, and due to elevated snowlines European resorts at lower altitudes are finding it very difficult to get bank loans to assist with development - the banks regarding them as too high-risk for investment. Resorts in Scotland are having to diversify into walking and mountain-biking.

"We add eight to 10 meters of ladder every year to get to the Mer de Glace [glacier] in Chamonix," said Martial Saddier from the French Association of Mountain Water.

And a reduction in the volume of snow has been noted over the past 20 years, as well as a shortening of the period when snow falls, threatening the future of ski resorts below 1,800 metres and prompting the increased usage of snow cannons, machines turning water in snow which is then sprayed onto the pistes....

But both the increase in the number of winter sports tourists and the greater recourse to snow machines have also added to pressure on mountain water resources, depleting resources and leaving less for other human uses such as agricultural irrigation downstream and hydro-electric power stations.

As a result around 20 artificial water reservoirs are being constructed in the Alps, said Alain Marnezy, professor at University of Savoie, including one for 400,000 cubic metres at Grand Bornand in France. - Cosmos Magazine

Covering glaciers with thousands of square feet of reflective materials or increasing investment in artificial snow-making machinery are expensive in terms of both money and energy - and are temporary patches at best. Of course, snow and glaciers mean far more to the world than just skiing, but with ski resorts around the world feeling the heat, some are now trying to educate patrons and politicians about the need to address this issue. Expect action from other industies too, as the heat gets turned up on their respective activities.

Follow up: Watch BBC video on how one of the warmest autumns on record is effecting skifields in Europe.