Last winter was a non-starter and while that meant a savings for communities in terms of snow removable, likely reduced delays in air travel and also made highways safer it wasn’t so good for the ski resorts. While it is still too early to tell if Mother Nature will return with a vengeance ski resorts aren’t taking chances. Manmade snow has been around for decades, but snow-making is reportedly going high tech.
The Los Angeles Times reported that many resorts are making the shift from diesel air compressors that require workers to monitor and are adopting computerized systems that use fiber-optic cables to do the monitoring while low-energy fans are shooting out the snow. Much of this can now be controlled by smartphones. Yes, there is an app for making snow it seems.
The better news is that the new white stuff is actually much closer to that made by nature. Many veteran skiers can’t even tell the difference.
While it might seem that the receipt for snow isn’t that hard to acquire there is the right amount of cold and water it seems. The best snow – man-made snow that is – can even be made in snowballs. Yes, there is an art to making snow. But now with technology that art is becoming a science.
[Via The Los Angeles Times: Snow-making at ski resorts goes high tech]