Climate change threatens Alpine skiing resorts, but at the same time, ski tourism itself also contributes in a sizeable way to climate warming, due to millions of people travelling by car, and snow guns, that already provide snow in autumn and consume huge quantities of water. Also in high Alpine altitudes, such as at the Sonnblick, the impacts of the earth warming are already evident. Glaciers melt and the permafrost thaws, which makes the subsoil unstable leading to cracks in the extern walls of the observatory. Despite everything, millions in subsides still flow into the expansion of skiing slopes and snow cannons.