How a snowmobile tour company is getting ready for a future with less snow » Yale Climate Connections – GWC Mag

During the winter, Alexandre Dupré loves to hop on a snowmobile to explore Canada’s wilderness — and to help others do the same.

Dupré: “It’s really a way to get to places that you could not otherwise … and we try to make it not only about the machine but about the forest, about the nature, and about the beauty of the scenery we’ve got around here.”

Dupré works for Nord Expé, a company that leads snowmobile tours in the Charlevoix region near Québec City and in areas farther north.

He says when he got started in the industry eight years ago, he could rely on good snow through the winter. But now conditions are less predictable.

Dupré: “Sometimes it’s because we had good snow, but it rained and it melted. Or sometimes it’s just no precipitation, snow or rain. … Like this winter, we didn’t have snow during Christmas … so we lost a lot of reservations and a big part of our season by the lack of snow.”

And on frozen lakes and rivers, the ice conditions are getting less reliable.

Dupré says to compensate for a less consistent snowmobiling season, the company is diversifying — adding summertime ATV and mountain bike tours.

So as the climate warms, they’ll have other ways to get people into the wilderness — even when it’s not blanketed in snow.

Reporting credit: Sarah Kennedy / ChavoBart Digital Media

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