Doing its part in the high-brow Priusification of the green movement, the New York Times has just released its “Ski Issue,” reporting on the conversion of luxurious Swiss ski resorts into nothing more than luxurious Swiss sun decks and spas as snowfall even in the Alps decreases. Meanwhile one music fan and YouTube user has posted an unofficial video on behalf of the L.A. band HEALTH that honors another imminent casualty of Switzerland’s suddenly sultry climate. By pairing the heroic track “Heaven” with footage from Werner Herzog’s 1973 documentary The Great Ecstasy of the Woodcarver Steiner about Swiss ski jumper Walter Steiner, Bret Berg touches on a quandary heretofore neglected by the Times and many others: If the Alpine snowfields melt into a miserable puddle, whatever will become of the high-flying Swiss?
—Cassie McGettigan
