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Doug_Bryce


Posts: 1373
Joined: Jan 2003
Snow making or snow farming ?
Date Posted: 21.10hrs on Sun 1 May 16
Lots of chat on these forums about snowmaking over the years. However the only reason the plateau poma has remained complete until 1st May at Glencoe is some serious snow-farming.

Large piles of snow were accumulated at side of uptrack earlier in the winter - some of which came from the spring run. No doubt the 2 new groomers helped make this possible ? It is quite unusual for the poma track to last this long. Lots of work obviously required to make it happen thumbs up.

Photo borrowed from the public reports
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alan


Posts: 10768
Joined: Nov 1994
Last Visited: 17:02
27th Mar 2024
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Re: Snow making or snow farming ?
Date Posted: 22.00hrs on Sun 1 May 16
You can't farm snow that doesn't exist and therein lies part of the answer. It's all part of a snow management arsenal which is critical to commercially viable snowsports areas - no snow = no snowsports = money tap turned off!

Doug_Bryce


Posts: 1373
Joined: Jan 2003
Re: Snow making or snow farming ?
Date Posted: 22.08hrs on Sun 1 May 16
plateau poma uptrack visible below

cumbrianskihead


Posts: 39
Joined: Mar 2016
Last Visited: 15:14
12th Feb 2017
Re: Snow making or snow farming ?
Date Posted: 10.18hrs on Tue 3 May 16
They do an awful lot of snow farming in Austria in ski resorts that don't have snow making. Often this includes a mix of plowing, but also Pisten Bully have an attachment that some groomers refer to as a 'grabber' - basically it sits on the front of the machine and scoops up 1-1.5 cubic meters of snow, which can then be carried to wherever needed. While early on in the season this might not be useful, later on it could be used to move snow from the bases of the two basin tows and moved down the hill to patch the wall t-bar, poma and runs such as mugs alley.

Having said that, they have done a pretty good job this season - I was last up 2nd April and it was looking very promising then, despite the lack of snow early on in the season. As ever hoping the weather will be kind next year and submitted a letter to glencoe offering to help out on the mountain, volentry for a week.



Edited 1 times. Last edit at 10.19hrs Tue 3 May 16 by cumbrianskihead.
snowpatch94


Posts: 87
Joined: Jul 2006
Last Visited: 20:30
7th Aug 2019
Re: Snow making or snow farming ?
Date Posted: 18.44hrs on Tue 3 May 16
I have heard that it is possible to protect the snow and keep it for next season It can be done by placing special plastic coverings over the snow. The environmentalists might have something to say about it but....

What a shame we have almost the perfect base in the Main Basin and we are going to let it melt away...

A base like that would be prefect for next season.... Just think we could unwrap at the end of November and have guaranteed skiing...no need for snow canons or unpredictable westerlies.....
growwild


Posts: 3550
Joined: Oct 2005
Re: Snow making or snow farming ?
Date Posted: 00.30hrs on Wed 4 May 16
Stop the press - ski resort does what it should be doing anyway!

Snow farming would be trapping/growing snow tae be used on areas that need it, moving snow fae one area tae another would be some serious snow moving...

Creating furrows outta snow north tae south then pushing out what gets trapped in between them is probably the best old skool method of farming snow I've seen, when nature provides that is.. For lean times snow making wins, press a button and create some fattys, nature aint predictable and when the sun shines ya gotta make hay, if yer in the hay business...

Good insulation and a reflective covering on top facing the sun would help keep the snow fae melting, looked like cheap bubble wrap wi mylar on top that was on some piles of snow in Sochi. But making land that's easily workable take less snow tae open would be mair beneficial in the long term.....

Guy I know says lights are a waste of time and energy, but I get more chillies, tomatoes and cucumbers than him every year, if we relied on nature tae feed ourselves we'd be pan bread smiling smiley






Edited 1 times. Last edit at 00.32hrs Wed 4 May 16 by growwild.
PeterS


Posts: 980
Joined: Feb 2003
Last Visited: 12:21
13th Mar 2021
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Re: Snow making or snow farming ?
Date Posted: 11.41hrs on Tue 11 Oct 16
[www.technoalpin.com]

Rather than wait for the temperature and humidity to drop low enough I wonder if making snow in a batched plant would be viable at the Lecht or Glenshee to open a road side run ?
PeterS


Posts: 980
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Last Visited: 12:21
13th Mar 2021
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Re: Snow making or snow farming ?
Date Posted: 11.57hrs on Tue 11 Oct 16
a little more info here.

[www.technoalpin.com]

The current low value of the pound doesn't help however.

PeterS


Posts: 980
Joined: Feb 2003
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13th Mar 2021
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Re: Snow making or snow farming ?
Date Posted: 12.45hrs on Tue 11 Oct 16
Ahhhh here is the catch. It costs half a million dollars to buy and 4 to 5 times the energy of a conventional snowmaker to run, presumably because of the cooling power required. Then there is the cost of moving it around.

Perhaps if the ski centres were able to generate their own power then that might off set the electricity costs, but then renewable energy itself is very expensive to develop.

It does use a lot less water than conventional snowmaking, but that is the one commodity we have cheaply available1

[www.outsideonline.com]





Edited 1 times. Last edit at 12.47hrs Tue 11 Oct 16 by PeterS.
Chris H


Posts: 1620
Joined: Dec 2003
Last Visited: 23:59
13th Mar 2020
Re: Snow making or snow farming ?
Date Posted: 13.22hrs on Tue 11 Oct 16
Some serious snow farming going in on at a couple of resorts in Scandinavia these days, enough to open some short runs well before the natural stuff starts to fall again: [www.planetski.eu]
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