The Austrian ski resort has closed permanently.

The managers of Unterberg's lift company said that after purchasing and rescuing the resort in 2014, they spent years working to operate it for the benefit of winter sports in the region. According to them, consistently warmer winters and the effects of climate change forced them to cease operating the lifts.

Unterberg extended across 16 kilometers of slopes and included four lifts and a conveyor lift for beginners. Despite the investment and efforts made to revive it, changing weather conditions made operating it increasingly difficult.

The resort is located at an elevation of 700 to 1,400 meters above sea level, a range in which even small temperature changes can turn snow into rain. At the same time, the windows suitable for producing artificial snow are becoming shorter, and operational difficulties are increasing.

Data on Europe illustrate the broader trend. According to the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, at least 95 percent of Europe experienced above-average annual temperatures in 2025. That year also saw a 31 percent decline in snow cover, alongside a loss of glacial mass across all regions of the continent.

Unterberg is not the only European ski resort affected by these conditions. Lac Blanc in France and the ski lifts in Braunwald, Switzerland, also announced last summer that they would close, following a decline in snowfall attributed to climate change.

The owners of Unterberg are now considering the possibility of operating the area in the future solely as a destination for hiking and snowshoeing. Further details about the site's future uses are expected to be published in the coming weeks.

The closure of Unterberg highlights the growing pressure on low-altitude ski resorts. At this stage, the impact is being felt mainly at smaller, lower-elevation resorts, but continued warming and declining snowfall could eventually alter the operations of larger ski resorts as well.