The Alpine Shift: Climate Adaptation in Practice

How Swiss mountain villages are pivoting from ski tourism to summer wellness retreats.

Langenbruck, Switzerland – Think of the Swiss winter postcard. It is a world of crisp white silence, punctuated by the clanking of ski lift gears and the smell of fondue. For a century, this was the contract: the snow fell, the tourists came, and the village prospered.Now, picture the reality in the lower foothills of the Jura or the Prealps today. The hills are brown and green. The “T-bar” lift stands silent, its cables rusting in the January rain. The only sound is the wind moving through pine trees that are suffering from drought.