How climate change is threatening the future of the Winter Olympics
It wasn't just the massive chunks of ice breaking loose, crashing down. New waterfalls appeared, tumbling from surrounding cliffs, as if the frozen terrain were melting away.
With the 2022 Winter Olympics drawing near, top U.S. skiers and snowboarders traveled to the Swiss Alps in early fall, gathering in the village of Saas-Fee for offseason training on the year-round ice and snow of an adjacent glacier.
This time looked different from previous camps.
"Definitely a weird thing at play," said snowboarder Red Gerard, the defending gold medalist in men's slopestyle.
Teammate Jamie Anderson, a two-time Olympic champion in women's slopestyle, called it "pure physical testimony to how gnarly climate change
