STORY AND PHOTOS BY KAREN BOSSICK

As a skier, Jae Hill is terrified of climate change.

And not just because 200 million people could be displaced by rising sea levels.

Hill, Sun Valley’s community development director, is fearful of the impact climate change will have of on the places he loves to ski.

“TED is about the next big idea—about ideas worth spreading. My idea is we’re going to have to reinvent skiing,” Hill told more than 200 people attending the inaugural TEDxSunValley conference on Wednesday at the Sun Valley Opera House.

In the past few decades, 272 ski areas have closed in the United States—that’s more than a third of ski areas, Hill said. And some of those closed because they could no longer count on snow.

Snow conditions we currently see at 6,000 feet will rise to 7,000 feet by 2050.

Hill noted that snowmaking was invented in the 1970s to provide a security blanket for ski resorts when there was not enough precipitation to coat slopes with white gold.

But even Sun Valley, which has one of the finest arsenals in the world, struggled to make snow for its Thanksgiving opener this year because of warm temperatures.

"And just a 2-degree celsius shift means that ski resorts will have 32 fewer days each season for snowmaking at 7,400 feet," Hill added.

"To address warmer winters, we’re going to have to change our expectations of skiing, including when we ski and where we ski," Hill said.

Ski resorts are going to have to reconfigure their operations to get skiers and boarders higher than they currently go. Then they’re going to have to figure out a way to get them back to the bottom—a bottom that may be more mud than snow in another 30 years.

Some resorts may have to go to plastic grass that can be skied on year round. Or, to indoor ski hills like Dubai has.

"As small ski areas close, so do the pipelines that nurture and feed skiers to bigger resorts like Sun Valley," Hill added.

“We need to figure new ways to get people interested in trying the sport,” he said.

While ski operators are rethinking what they do, manufacturers need to come up with new gear that doesn’t take such a beating on rocks and grass. Only one company now makes backcountry gear for children—that needs to change if families are going to be going in pursuit of higher playgrounds than they currently use.

"It’s possible we’ll even need new towns at higher elevations to accommodate the changes," Hill said.

“And maybe,” Hill addressed the audience, “Just maybe, the next big idea is something entirely different!”

FOR MORE ABOUT TEDxSUNVALLEY, see Eye on Sun Valley's Friday, Dec. 2, story: "TEDxSunValley Delights."