https://reasonstobecheerful.world/snow-farming-ski-areas/
"At its zenith, Monarch Mountain in south-central Colorado is over 11,000 feet
tall. Skiing here is being on top of the world. Each winter, snow generously
blankets the slopes, providing the fresh powder for which Colorado is known.
The resort’s height and position on the Continental Divide traps moist air over
the mountains, where it cools quickly, and snow can fall readily by late
September some years.
“We have never had a traditional snowmaking system up here,” says Malcolm
Wilber, assistant director of base operations. Instead, since the resort opened
in the late 1930s, the runs have been groomed and the snow depth has been
augmented with snow harvested primarily from the resort’s parking lots. To trap
more snow, holes are dug and deep ruts are forged in the existing snowpack.
Monarch Mountain is, however, an exception. Manmade snow cover on skiable
terrain in the U.S. ranges from 62 percent in the Northeast to 98 percent in
the Midwest.
When it comes to the need for artificial snow, “I think it’s all about the
difference between what you’re trying to create as a product and also what your
constraints are,” says Wilber. “If some of these ski areas have a base
elevation in that 6,000- to 8,000-foot range they’re going to need to blow snow
to get their areas set up because they just don’t have those early season
snowstorms.”
Artificial snow is made by forcing water droplets into the air through a snow
cannon or lance at high speed. The water quickly cools, freezes and forms
snowflakes that fall to the ground. Natural snow, which falls from great
heights, traps air between ice crystals to create the quintessential fluffy
snowflake. In contrast, artificial snow forms closer to the ground and is
therefore denser. This makes it able to withstand warmer air temperatures,
allowing ski hills to remain open well into spring. Side-stepping Mother
Nature, though, can have consequences.
As climate change affects snowpack at ski areas around the world, questions
have arisen about the sustainability of snowmaking. According to SMI Snow
Makers, a global supplier of snow-making equipment, an area 200 feet by 200
feet covered with six inches of artificial snow requires almost 75,000 gallons
of water.
In 2023, researchers at Canada’s University of Waterloo and Austria’s
University of Innsbruck published a study on the impact of making artificial
snow, using Canada as an example. They found that the power and infrastructure
needed to run the snow cannons and to pump the water required to cover Canada’s
ski hills with 42 million cubic meters of human-made snow annually results in
130,095 tons of associated CO2 emissions per year. A growing number of ski
resorts are turning to green energy for power, such as Grouse Mountain in
Vancouver, where a wind turbine offsets up to two percent of the mountain’s
annual power consumption, but it’s a drop in the bucket."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
