After last winter, one of the warmest in the registry, some ski hills and Nordic centers may want to look for snow agriculture, the practice of storing snow to extend the season.
Canada was one of the pioneers in a technique that is now used throughout the world, which actually has nothing to do with crops or cattle.
Snow agriculture can mean some different things, from redirecting snow in winter to store it during the summer. But unlike the creation of artificial snow, these techniques work even if there is no water source or freezing temperatures.
Banff Sunshine in Alberta, which does not have access to an important water source, has been snow agriculture since the 70s.
“Due to our unique location, we had to be creative with the way we directed our resort and collect our snow,” said Kendra Scurfield, whose family has owned and operated on the resort since 1981. Scurfield, who is the company’s brand vice president and communications, says that the snow farm began as a necessity and is especially important in the seasons with less snow.
The mountain operations team uses fences made of bamboo and plastic to take advantage of the strong wind.
“We will corchar a fence, and when the snow falls and the wind blows, the fences act as a network to catch all the snow,” Scurfield said. “Our team studies wind patterns to know what will be the best area to catch it.”
Once an area was surrounded, they will move that snow where it is most needed. How to extend ice formation in a cake, he said.
While Scurfield says that snow agriculture has been carried out in the Alps somehow since the Middle Ages, more has been needed in North America in recent years, and she says they will continue to do so as the climate changes.
Although it is still an unusual practice in North America, snow agriculture is now used in several ski places, including BC Baldy Resort of BC, Craftsbury Outdoor Center in Vermont and the Nordic Center Canmore de Alberta.
Use snow storage for Help at the beginning of the season
Jamie Temple works as a snow supervisor for the Nordic Canmore center. They have made other types of snow cultivation in the past, but now they focus mainly on the temple as snow storage, saving snow in batteries covered with insulating materials.
“Snow storage is used to get a course at the beginning of the season when we don’t have snow,” he said.
In 2009, Canmore Nordic Center began the practice of making large snow batteries in mid -December or early January, and covering them in a thick layer of sawdust during the summer. Then, the stored snow is excavated in autumn, around Thanksgiving, to make a track called Frozen Thunder.
This year, Frozen Thunder will be the longest in history: six or seven kilometers, compared to the original 2.2 km. Its capacity has also been extended from a practice space for high performance athletes to an early recreational ski course.
“Last year, we obtained -15 C in October, and this year it was quite opposite: we did not get a lot of snow temperature and the precipitation was close to void,” he said.
“It seems to be very different year after year, instead of in a gradient … we are doing these processes to ensure that we can still bring a quality product to people, even if climate change worsens a lot.”
Snow agriculture to handle climate unpredictability
The United States has also been suffering, with A study From the University of Waterloo, estimating that the United States ski industry has lost more than $ 5 billion in the United States in the last two decades due to climate change caused by humans.
When Judy Geer and her husband Dick Dreissigker bought Craftsbury Outdoor Center, based in Vermont, in 2008, they made it a non -profit organization focused on sports for life, sustainable practices and be good land administrators.
“The weather is changing, there is no doubt about that, and as skiers, we are especially aware of it,” he said. “Last year, everything was left too fast … and unfortunately it seems that he is about to do the same this year. We almost had [15.6 C] Yesterday, which is crazy, and we lost a lot [of snow]”
While Craftsbury has some snow blowers that can make snow, they were looking for other solutions because it was not cold enough for us, the thanksgiving at the end of November to do so.
That is where the Professor of the University of Vermont entered the School of Environment and Natural Resources Paul Bierman, approaching Craftsbury in 2018 to propose an experiment in snow agriculture.
They started with small test batteries and finally discovered that a thick wood chirlips layer would allow them to keep 70 percent of the snow. Shortly after, they had been reduced to a battery with almost 6,000 cubic meters of snow in an old pond.
As for Geer and Bierman, Craftsbury is the only place in the United States that is involved in snow agriculture, but which is now crucial for its ski season, given the unpredictability of the weather.
“It’s quite surprising, there is snow under those wood chips throughout the summer,” Geer said. “And it means that when [U.S.] Thanksgiving comes for us, even if we don’t have enough temperatures to make fresh snow, we can extend that snow and get between one and two kilometers of skiing. “
Look | A period of time of the snow battery:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2VVVO6YQD8U
To reduce the environmental impact, many of the wood chips come from trees that fall on the paths, and snow guns used to make the battery work with generators with a heat recovery unit used to feed their home.
In addition to economic stability for Craftsbury and surrounding local companies, snow agriculture has also allowed them to do fun things with snow, such as taking out a small track for July 4 for the city party.
“People turn turns, jumps and turns and have fun in this small hill covered with snow in mid -July,” Bierman said. “It was, that was probably the funniest thing for which I have seen things to use.”
