Andy Grobe has overseen operations at Boyce Park Ski Slopes for the past 10 years. In that time, the park has only shut down mid-season once due to poor snowmaking conditions — that is, until this year, when the small, one-hill ski resort closed for three days on New Year's Eve.
"Usually, in a given year, even with its ups and downs, we have enough snowmaking windows that can last us through [the season], and unfortunately, this year is just a lot warmer and a lot more rain than we normally would get," Grobe, the deputy director of Allegheny County Parks, says.
Amidst an unusually warm winter, Grobe says the Allegheny County-run Boyce Park Ski Slopes in Plum has struggled to make and maintain snow, making it harder to open to full capacity at the beginning of the season. Some fear that the present conditions portend skiless winters to come due to the globally warming climate.
Boyce Park Ski Slopes is only a 20-minute drive from Downtown and offers snow tubing, skiing, and snowboarding down its one slope. Two lifts take visitors up to the top of the main hill, which is partitioned by tree-filled patches separating the three beginner and two intermediate runs.
Grobe says despite a scheduled start to the ski season on Dec. 22, a spell of warm nightly temperatures hovering above the required 30-degree threshold to make snow, coupled with excess rain, forced the park to close from Dec. 31 to Jan. 4.
The park has four runs open, with one run and the terrain park closed, according to an online snow conditions tracker. With last week's bitter chill and an uptick in snowfall, Grobe said he was optimistic the resort will consistently stay open until the season’s close in March.
Meteorologist for the National Weather Service, Matt Brudy, says this year's national average winter temperature from December to Jan. 16 has been 37.8 degrees, while the winter average from 1991 to 2020 was 31 degrees. Rainfall this year is also on track to meet the average over the past three decades, he says.
Mark Abbott, a professor of geology and environmental science at the University of Pittsburgh, says the warm winter weather starting this year could be driven by El Niño, a periodic weather condition characterized by warmer sea surface temperatures in the Pacific Ocean that raise atmospheric temperatures across the globe.
Climate change as a result of the burning of fossil fuels also plays a role, Abbott says.
Since the 1960s, there's been a consistent rise in the climate's temperature and a corresponding decline in snowfall. Abbott views this mild Pittsburgh winter as a model for frequent, future tepid winters as a result of climate change, which he says "does not bode well for skiers."
"Many years, we're seeing records broken year after year with warmer temperatures overall on a global average," Abbott says. "That's happening at the same time that carbon dioxide and methane and other greenhouse gas concentrations are rising from fossil fuel burning, mostly."
Bill Linkenheimer has been a part of the Pittsburgh area ski scene since he was five years old. In high school, he started working at the local ski and winter-wear store, Willi's Ski and Snowboard Shops. Nearly 40 years later, he's the general manager of all three locations in South Hills, Seven Springs, and North Hills, which is temporarily closed.
Boyce Park Ski Slope’s $20 weekend lift tickets, $20 equipment rentals, and easy runs make it a perfect option for families and amateur skiers not looking to fork over hundreds at larger resorts, Linkenheimer says.
“The fact that it's small and county-owned and keeps the costs in check — it's really an awesome resource to have,” Linkenheimer says. “It's actually an awesome resource to have for the residents of Allegheny County and surrounding areas.”
Linkenheimer recalls the snow storms of his youth in the ’70s and ’80s that would set up the perfect day on the slopes. Now, these are a rarity, and as the planet continues to warm, he says he's saddened by the thought of impending snowless winters and a Boyce Park Ski Slopes unable to operate.
"I wonder, generations into the future, what life will be here," Linkenheimer says. "As the planet continues to warm, where will we have to go to ski?"
