The practical effects of climate change and participation rates can be seen in the lower latittudes and altitudes, as the shorter ski seasons and erosion of commitment takes a toll in economic terms. Quoting the entire passage below from Great Brook ski touring:

The End of Great Brook Skiing?

The future of DCR’s cross-country ski concession at Great Brook Farm State Park is threatened by a loss of parking capacity. A recent redesign of the inner parking lot has reduced its previous capacity by nearly 50% with a loss of about 90 spaces. The outer lot, a mowed field, increasingly suffers from warmer winters and poor drainage, made worse by runoff from the inner lot’s new asphalt. As a concessionaire, I have urged DCR for 10 years to improve parking conditions in the outer lot but no progress has been observed. Now the inner lot, the best part of the parking facility, has been drastically reduced and actually makes the original flooding problem worse.

Great Brook Ski Touring Center’s season ranks among the shortest of any commercial Nordic center in New England, and the business has survived 43 years because its abundant parking allowed high visitation. Without it, I am certain that the business will be unmanageable.

The ski concession deserves a viable future as groomed ski trails in southern New England are scarce, public demand for them steadily increases, and over 2,000 skiers have come to Great Brook on a single day. The ski concession is a unique and highly valued public resource that is fragile and perhaps irreplaceable. Why do skiers face this decline in parking capacity?

The current contract for the ski concession to operate at the park will expire at the end of the 2026 ski season. If adequate parking capacity cannot be ensured to provide a means of operating then it is unlikely that I will seek a new contract, and liquidation of the business would begin next winter.

Please contact both your state representative and Carlisle’s state representative Simon Cataldo (simon.cataldo@mahouse.gov), become a Friend of Great Brook Ski Touring Center by emailing fogbski@gmail.com, and join the conversation on the Friends of Great Brook Ski Touring Center Facebook page.  Thank you!

Stuart Johnstone
Great Brook Farm Ski Touring Center, Inc.

See more: Great Brook Ski Touring site

Operations like Great Brook Farm, Fahnestock Winter Park, High Point, Pine Ridge share a similar pattern of issues: when conditions are decent, there’s a lot of traffic, unfortunately it’s unpredictable and lacks consistency. This pattern leads to limited commitment by both the public and officials. Inconsistent revenue means less promotion, maintenance, and fewer or no upgrades. Less reliable snowfall pushes the downward spiral in business to its logical conclusion. Areas that have ceased operation for XC skiing since I started this blog include Timber Creek, Dexter’s Inn, Mountain Meadows, and Windblown.

What can be done? Aside from hoping for climate change to reverse course, it comes down to making everyday winter outdoor activities interesting to a broad and diverse swath of people, in a way that hasn’t happened for some time. Perhaps counterintuitively, it also implies that touring centers have spark an interest beyond a dependency on regular snowfall. It may include hosting dryland practice or alternative modes of play that touch something basic in humans who venture beyond the comfort of the fire.