Curved Footprints - manipulated landscapes

This series is about mountain landscapes and the impact of the winter sports industry - it poses the question whether the winter sports tourism industry is a good or bad thing? I have always loved hiking in the mountains, particularly where it is possible to camp overnight and actually stay up there once everyone has left and it has always felt like such a privilege to be there. Partly because of that love of the wilderness and even though I ski, I find the experience in ski resorts completely different. I have always resented the intrusion of all the ski infrastructure and equipment and have tended to avoid photographing it as it always seemed to ruin the otherwise pristine landscape. Looking at it another way however, the concept of an entire (worldwide) industry based on people having fun sliding around a mountain is quite interesting. It is also interesting to consider how ski resorts have developed over the years and what might otherwise have happened to the small mountain villages many evolved from. The development of new resorts is always contraversial but there's no doubt that many small farming villages from these mountain areas would have gone into decline without the advent of the tourism that brought vital employment and money. The environmental impact of skiing is heavy too though in terms of both energy consumption and the effect on sensitive ecologies as well as the impact of huge numbers of tourists descending for half the year needing food, sanitation and accommodation. The tourist season is also extending to offer summer sports like biking, hiking, glacier skiing, etc. adding to the impact even more. This short series covers some winter mountain images concentrating on the 'resort' element of the mountain, but the question remains.