The Associated Press has reported that the US military is demanding two Sierra Nevada ski resorts return howitzers used for avalanche control, saying the weapons are needed by troops fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Alpine Meadows and Mammoth Mountain have five howitzers between them, valued at around $1m each, loaned by the US army for avalanche control work. Resort employees said they had not thought the army would ask for the guns back so soon, but would certainly return them, understanding that their was a war going on.

The arrangement to loan gun to ski areas is not new and in Mammoth's case goes back at least 30 years. Resorts spend hundreds of thousands of dollars transporting the guns and reimbursing the Army for training and build firing platforms. The US military are reportedly trying to find some older weapons, no longer used by the military but effective for avalanche control work, to replace the returned howitzers.