Photo caption: With less snow falling around the world due to climate change, ski resorts are struggling to find ways to secure snow.Article related information
- Reporter Amanda Ruggeri
- Reporter, BBC Future
-
2 hours ago
Ski seasons are becoming increasingly uncertain due to climate change. However, recently, ski resorts have appeared that revive the methods of mankind in the past and store snow so that it does not melt even in the summer.
In Finland’s ‘Ruka Ski Resort’, the snow usually begins to melt in April. So, in early May, 22 ski resort lifts stop operating. When the lifts stop, the 41 ski slopes are covered in green waves and are crowded with hikers and mountain bikers, not ski tourists.
However, five of the slopes here had snow pits covered with a white polystyrene blanket. Each pit stores approximately 30,000 ㎥ of snow. Snow in a hole spends the summer inside. Estimates based on several years of data suggest that about 80 to 90 percent of the snow will remain when the blanket of pits is removed in October. It is enough to cover 3-4 slopes and a snow park.
This method can be very useful in ski resorts where the altitude is less than 500m above sea level, such as Luca Resort. This method is expected to be especially effective early in the ski season when snow cover and temperature are not constant. “About 10 years ago, good snow quality was only guaranteed here from early December to April,” said Antti Karaba, CEO of Luka Resort. “But now, with snow storage technology, it is possible to ski from early October to the second week of May.” “We can now guarantee good conditions,” he said.
image copyrightVeera Vihervaara/Ruka
Photo caption: As winters get warmer and snowpack becomes more unpredictable, ski resorts are having to find ways to secure snow.
Winters are getting warmer and snow cover is becoming more unpredictable. Accordingly, many ski resorts around the world are introducing snow storage technology called “snow farming” or “snow storage.” This is a method of storing the snow that has fallen during the winter in one place and covering it with insulating material so that it can survive the summer. The snow stored in this way is sprinkled where snow is needed during events such as the opening of the ski season in late fall or ski competitions.
In some ways, this method is more efficient than the traditional way ski resorts make snow. Industry experts say this could be a huge help to resorts like Lucca and the local economy. If there is no snow on the slopes, visitors who want to ski will not come, and large ski competitions that attract thousands of tourists cannot be held.
But experts say the fact that resorts rely on snow storage technology is itself indicative of the ski industry’s problems with carbon emissions. This means that even though fall snow cover is decreasing, the industry is sticking to the traditional ‘season’ opening time of early October.
You may be surprised to know that you can store snow all year round. However, this practice has been going on for centuries. Before the development of refrigeration technology, ice and snow were stored underground in the summer to keep food cool. The ski industry has also long studied ways to preserve snow in order to hold ski events or open ski resorts in the fall or early winter. One solution is to collect snow and then cover it with materials such as sawdust, crushed wood, and straw. This method is said to be surprisingly effective. According to one study, 72 to 85 percent of snow can be preserved even in summer this way.
Fabian Wolfsperger, head of the snow sports research center at the Snow Institute in Switzerland, said, “(This storage method) is the same principle as a house,” and added, “As long as you insulate it well, you can build a warm house even in the Arctic.” “On the other hand, if you pile up the snow and insulate it well, it will not melt due to the surrounding heat.”
Today, much more sophisticated technology is available. A representative example is the Finnish company ‘Snow Secure’, which blocks heat by completely covering the geometric shape of the snow pit with a 50-70 mm thick white polystyrene blanket.
According to the company’s internal testing, the system is effective even at extremely high temperatures. In June 2023, the top of a blanket of stored snow was measured for a week in Viti, Finland, and the highest temperature was 44°C. (The highest temperature in the atmosphere at the time was 31℃.) On the other hand, the highest temperature under the blanket was only 2.5℃.
image copyrightJani Karppa/Ruka
image captionBlanket prevents snow from melting when summer temperatures rise
Snow stored in this way can be kept up to about 90% from melting. Of course, that amount is not enough to cover the entire resort. Still, it is enough to cover Luca Resort’s two main lift sections, snow park, and children’s area with snow.
This type of snow is also used at many ski resorts to cover competition slopes with snow. The best known and most successful example is the Levi Resort in Finland. It hosts the first slalom event on the FIS (International Ski and Snowboard Federation) Alpine Ski World Cup schedule every November. Levi Resort has been using snow storage technology for its competition slopes since 2016. Since then, unlike other resorts that host FIS races in the fall, Levi Resort has never canceled a slalom race due to lack of snow.
Of course, this also comes at a cost. Pilot Snow Secure’s technology
It costs about 50,000 to 100,000 euros to use, and “hundreds of thousands of euros” to secure enough snow to cover the entire slope. Nevertheless, the company said it would invest as the cost would be reduced to less than 1 euro per cubic meter of snow after 10 years. They say it’s worth it.
There are also environmental costs. However, the environmental cost may be less than the method that many ski resorts currently use to operate their ski resorts.
Currently, many ski resorts use artificial snow machines to secure snow. How much snow an artificial snowmaker can make depends on several conditions. It is most effective when there is a combination of very low temperatures, dry air, and mild winds. Carrabba said that if the temperature is around -2 degrees Celsius, an artificial snowmaker can make 3 cubic meters of snow using about 2 cubic meters of water per hour. On the other hand, if the temperature is between -15℃ and -20℃, 20㎥ of water per hour can be passed through the snow blower to produce 35~40㎥ of snow. He said, “This means creating 10 times more snow with the same amount of energy.”
However, most ski resorts are trying to make as much snow as possible. Therefore, snow blowers are operated even in times when artificial snow blowers are least effective, such as in October or November when the weather is relatively warm.
Carrabba said snow storage technology allows ski areas like Lucca to focus their artificial snowmaking machines on times of the year when they are most efficient at making snow, such as January.
But Wolfsperger said eye storage technology also requires energy. “It’s definitely a technology that has a carbon footprint.” In fact, snow storage technologies can require two or three times more energy than traditional snow removal operations because they must disperse the stored snow. “As long as these machines are powered by fossil fuels, this is an additional carbon emission,” said Wolfsperger. (Carrabba says Luca
The resort’s artificial snow-making and snow-dispersing machines run on renewable diesel, reducing the process’ carbon footprint by about 90 percent.)
image copyrightKauden Avaus
Photo caption, The amount of snow that can be made by artificial snow machines at a ski resort depends on the temperature; the colder the day, the more snow can be made.
Of course, Wolfsperger said, “It’s always about what you’re comparing.” In other words, compared to resorts that make snow on warm fall days, snow storage technology is more energy efficient.
But there are other options as well. “We can save energy by pushing back the start of the Ski World Cup by four weeks,” he said.
FIS also seems to be increasingly aware of this. The FIS World Cup alpine skiing schedule begins in October and ends in March. But now it has become almost impossible to keep this schedule. In recent seasons, eight of the first 11 matches on the men’s schedule in countries including Austria, Switzerland, Canada and the United States were canceled due to weather conditions. It was the same the season before that.
Wolfsperger said the current FIS schedule and traditional ski season have now lost their meaning. He said, “Snow is a material that continuously accumulates throughout the winter ski season.” Many resorts prepare for the Christmas holidays as the biggest tourist event of the year, but in reality, there is often little or no snow in December.
Changes are also occurring in high-altitude resorts. The season when the most snow accumulates is delayed. In Davos Weissflujöch, at an altitude of 2,700 meters, where Wolfsperger lives, the average snowfall peaks in mid-April.
However, relatively few tourists come to ski in the spring.
“There is a possibility that competition schedules will change in the future and there will be a perception that ‘going skiing in mid-November or December may not be the best time,’” Wolfsperger said.
Eye storage technology, which is becoming increasingly sophisticated, is expected to become more common in the future.
Carabar is very excited that Luca Resort has decided to trial this technology. When I met Karaba, winter had not yet ended. Still, he said the resort would open on October 4, 2024. Regardless of whether it snows at that point or not, the resort will already have snow.
2024-04-14 02:50:33
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