From Sublime Landscapes to “White Gold”: How Skiing Transformed the Alps after 1930

Abstract

Every year, the Alps welcome over 120 million visitors and lifts carry over 500 million passengers up the slopes. These numbers reflect the rapid growth of Alpine tourism in the postwar era and are largely tied to the democratization of skiing and the sport's attendant growth into an industry and a pillar of the Alpine economy. While skiing is a lucrative business, the winter climate and the terrain of the Alps pose challenges to the rational, productivist ethic of both tourism and modern sport. As the sport became more popular and profitable, skiers, business interests, and state officials all had an incentive to engineer the mountains to suit their common needs for convenience, safety, and speed. This article examines how skiing transformed the Alpine landscape and perceptions of the Alps after 1930 as technologies mediated the relationship between skiers and the mountain environment. It demonstrates that even as tourism interests and sporting bureaucrats accelerated the technological modification of the Alps in the name of skiing, the sport's dependence on the environment did not diminish, it was only reconfigured.

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