Saving The Snow For Next Year: Ski Resorts Try 'snow Farming' As Temperatures Rise

Amid nan West’s worst snowfall drought successful modern history, respective skis areas are attempting a caller approach: Storing up manmade snowfall and preserving it until adjacent skis season.

Known arsenic “snow farming,” nan believe involves making artificial snowfall erstwhile conditions are perfect — successful cold, barren weather— and piling it 2 to 3 stories high, past covering nan mound pinch a large, insulated mat to shield it from sun and rain. When a skis edifice wants to unfastened successful nan fall, it tin dispersed nan snowfall backmost complete runs, alternatively than relying connected nan weather.

The exertion is much communal successful Europe but uncovering a foothold successful nan United States arsenic snowfall has go little reliable. This year, mini skis areas successful Wisconsin, Idaho and Utah are trying their manus astatine snowfall farming — a motion that new, work-intensive interventions are becoming a necessity arsenic nan skis manufacture grapples pinch ambiance change.

“It’s going to widen nan viability of skiing, particularly for immoderate of nan resorts that are going to beryllium connected nan separator arsenic we person warmer winters and we get little snow,” said Nate Shake, nan head of upland operations astatine Bogus Basin skis edifice adjacent Boise, Idaho, wherever snowfall farming is underway for a 2nd season.

Soldier Hollow Nordic Center, a venue adjacent Salt Lake City primitively built for nan 2002 Winter Games, is trying nan attack for nan first time. Finding a measurement to support reliable snowfall is particularly captious for nan area because Salt Lake City is scheduled to big nan Winter Olympics successful 2034.

The mound of snowfall being preserved astatine Soldier Hollow Nordic Center spans approximately 15,000 quadrate feet.Courtesy Utah Olympic Legacy Foundation

Soldier Hollow is slated to beryllium a venue for cross-country skis events again. But if conditions successful 8 years are arsenic bad arsenic they were this season, nan Games’ occurrence location could hinge connected nan snowfall farming tests now underway.

“It’s contingency readying for a bad wintertime successful 2034,” said Luke Bodensteiner, nan wide head of Soldier Hollow.

Bodensteiner, who competed successful nan Winter Olympics successful 1992 and 1994, said this year’s dismal snowpack was nan worst successful memory. Holding cross-country skis events “would person been a situation if this were an Olympic year,” he said.

How to ‘farm’ snow

Bodensteiner’s squad spent astir $300,000 connected a snowfall farming strategy from a Finnish institution called Snow Secure.

The institution sells achromatic polystyrene mats that fold for illustration an accordion, are astir 2½ inches heavy and tin beryllium installed successful a day. The mats are fundamentally weatherproof insulation, somewhat akin to nan insulation utilized successful housing. They’re designed to screen a snowfall heap astir nan magnitude of a shot section from apical to bottom.

Foam mats fold retired astatine Soldier Hollow to protect nan snowfall heap from sun, rainfall and wind.Courtesy Utah Olympic Legacy Foundation

The company’s customers mostly hold for cold, barren conditions to make snowfall utilizing snowfall guns, heap that snowfall up respective stories high, unfold nan mats, screen nan heap wholly and anchor nan strategy down pinch weights.

“It’s a small spot for illustration a battery. The much snowfall you tin put nether that insulated system, nan longer it’ll clasp that acold in,” Shake said.

Snow Secure uses foam mats and a geotextile covering arsenic portion of its snow-preservation system. The mats beryllium connected apical of nan snowfall heap and nan geotextile covers nan sides. Courtesy Utah Olympic Legacy Foundation

Antti Lauslahti, nan CEO of Snow Secure, said nan stored snowfall will typically suffer astir 20% of its wide complete nan people of a summer. But nan process allows skis areas to make snowfall successful conditions that lead h2o droplets to frost much rapidly.

“The snowfall value is amended erstwhile you make it successful acold weather,” he said. “You make it really fast, you make a really bully value and you usage little energy.”

Snowmaking has been celebrated since nan 1970s, but it is an inefficient usage of h2o successful warmer weather, for illustration nan opening aliases extremity of a season. Making snowfall successful marginal conditions usually requires 70% to 80% much energy, Lauslahti said.

“If it’s 27, 28 degrees and you time off a snowfall weapon connected overnight, you mightiness person a heap nether that nether that weapon that’s possibly 2 feet deep,” Bodensteiner said. “If it’s azygous digits outside, and you move connected that aforesaid snowfall gun, you’ll extremity up pinch a heap that’s 8 feet deep.”

A snowcat astatine Soldier Hollow Nordic Center helps build nan snowfall preservation pile.Courtesy Utah Olympic Legacy Foundation

Lauslahti said immoderate successful nan U.S. worried that summertime temperatures would climb excessively precocious for nan strategy to beryllium effective, but truthful acold it has worked.

Last year, Bogus Basin was 1 of 3 North American areas to aviator a Snow Secure program. During nan summer, a monitoring strategy recorded temperatures up to 119 degrees Fahrenheit connected nan exterior of nan mat system, but it kept nan snowfall astatine an mean of 37 degrees, Shake said.

In October, crews unpeeled nan mats and recovered astir 80% of nan snowfall had survived. Even though Bogus Basin had its warmest November connected record, it was capable to unfastened that month.

“We opened connected nan snowfall that we saved,” Shake said, adding that without snowfall farming, “we wouldn’t had a Thanksgiving opening astatine all.

A record-breaking snowfall drought

This wintertime has been a stunner for Western states.

By mid-March, each awesome basin successful nan West was experiencing its warmest aliases second-warmest wintertime connected grounds and had a snowfall deficit, according to nan U.S. drought monitor. Then, a record-breaking power activity past week zapped overmuch of nan remaining snow, raising wildfire concerns and spurring water-use restrictions successful places for illustration Denver. Several states — including Colorado and Utah — reported their lowest snowpacks connected record.

Some skis areas ne'er opened aliases offered constricted operations. Many resorts are closing early, earlier April begins.

“Everybody successful nan manufacture is cognizant of nan truth that winters are getting shorter and warmer,” Bodensteiner said.

Soldier Hollow was built astatine astir 5,600 feet supra oversea level to comply pinch Olympic regulations. That’s alternatively debased for skiing successful Utah, truthful nan installation often rides nan statement betwixt freezing and not, making it delicate to ambiance shifts.

Soldier Hollow Nordic Center unit usage a snowmobile to position portion of nan Snow Secure strategy complete a heap of snow.Courtesy Utah Olympic Legacy Foundation

Because of that, Soldier Hollow has invested successful snowmaking technology, including 20 “fan guns” that tin beryllium moved astir to rustle snowfall onto trails and 40 robotic, stationary “sticks” that make snowfall astatine fixed positions. Without that, Bodensteiner estimated, Soldier Hollow would person astir 20 less skiable days coming than it did successful 2002.

“Roughly half nan play is connected man-made snow,” he said.

He hopes that pinch nan snowfall farming experiment, Soldier Hollow will beryllium nan first Nordic skiing venue to unfastened adjacent fall. The installation is besides readying upgrades to its snowmaking equipment. If Snow Secure works, Bodensteiner wants to grow nan system.

“If we get nan results that we deliberation … successful nan summertime of 2033, we’ll astir apt person 3 to 4 of these piles going astir nan venue,” he said.