Author: Steven R. Fassnacht, Professor of Snow Hydrology, Colorado State University

It’s extremely easy to get sunburned while you’re skiing and snowboarding in the mountains, but have you ever wondered why? While it’s true that you’re slightly closer to the Sun when you’re high in the mountains, that isn’t the reason. If you go up 1 mile (1.6 km), about the elevation from Denver to the peaks of resorts such as Vail or Copper Mountain, you’re less than 1 millionth of a percent closer to the Sun – that’s nothing. Since the Earth’s orbit is an ellipse and not a circle, the planet is about 1.7% closer to the Sun in…