Amid the West’s worst snow drought in modern history, several ski areas are trying a new approach: Storing man-made snow and storing it until the next ski season.
Known as “snow farming,” the practice involves making artificial snow when conditions are right — in cold, dry weather — and piling it two to three stories high, then covering the mound with a large, insulated mat to protect it from the sun and rain. If the ski resort wants to open in the fall, it can spread the snow after the run, depending on the weather.
The technology is very common in Europe but finding a place in the United States as it snows is less reliable. This year, small ski areas in Wisconsin, Idaho and Utah are trying their hand at snow farming — a sign that new, labor-intensive interventions are becoming necessary as the ski industry grapples with climate change.
“It’s going to expand skiing operations, especially at some of the more remote resorts as we have a warmer winter and get less snow,” said Nate Shake, mountain operations director at Bogus Basin Ski Area near Boise, Idaho, where snow plowing is in its second season.
The Soldier Hollow Nordic Center, a venue near Salt Lake City originally built for the 2002 Winter Games, is trying this approach for the first time. Finding a way to store reliable ice is of particular importance to the area because Salt Lake City is slated to host the 2034 Winter Olympics.
Soldier Hollow is slated to be the site of cross-country ski events as well. But if the conditions in eight years are as bad as they were this season, the success of the Games there may depend on the snow plowing trials now underway.
“Contingencies are being planned for a severe winter in 2034,” said Luke Bodensteiner, general manager of Soldier Hollow.
Bodensteiner, who competed in the 1992 and 1994 Winter Olympics, said this year’s snow was the worst he could remember. Holding cross-country ski events “would be a challenge if this was an Olympic year,” he said.
How to ‘farm’ the snow
Bodensteiner’s team spent about $300,000 on a snow plowing system from a Finnish company called Snow Secure.
The company sells white polystyrene mats that fold like an accordion, about 2½ inches and can be installed in a day. Carpets are actually weatherproofing, which is not the same as applying house paint. They are designed to cover a pile of snow about the length of a football field from top to bottom.
The company’s customers usually wait for cold, dry conditions to make snow using snow guns, pile several stories of snow on top, open the mats, cover the pile completely and anchor the system down with weights.
“It’s a little bit like a battery. If you put ice under that insulated system, it will hold that cold for a long time,” Shake said.
Anti Lauslahti, CEO of Snow Secure, said that stored snow will lose about 20% of its weight during the summer. But this process allows ski areas to form ice in conditions that lead to water droplets freezing very quickly.
“The quality of the ice is better when you make it in the cold,” he said. “You make it really fast, you make it really good quality and you use less energy.”
Snowmaking has been popular since the 1970s, but it is an inappropriate use of water in warm weather, such as the beginning or end of the season. Making ice in light conditions usually requires more than 70% to 80% energy, Lauslahti said.
“If it’s 27, 28 degrees and you leave the snow gun overnight, you could have a pile under that gun that’s 2 feet deep,” Bodensteiner said. “If it’s single digits outside, and you turn on that snow gun, you’re going to end up with an 8-foot-deep pile.”
Lauslahti said some in the US are concerned that summer temperatures will rise too much for the system to work, but so far it has worked.
Last year, Bogus Basin was one of three places in North America to pilot the Snow Protection program. In the summer, the monitoring system recorded temperatures as high as 119 degrees Fahrenheit outside the mat system, but kept the snow at 37 degrees, Shake said.
In October, crews opened the mats and found about 80% of the ice that survived. Even though Bogus Basin had its warmest November on record, it was able to open that month.
“We opened from the snow we had saved,” said Shake, adding that without the plowing of the snow, “we would not have had a thanksgiving ceremony.”
Record snow drought
This winter has been a surprise in the Western states.
By mid-March, all major regions in the West had their warmest or second-warmest winter on record and were short of snow, according to the US Drought Monitor. Then, a record-breaking heat wave last week soaked up the remaining snow, raising wildfire concerns and restricting water use in places like Denver. Several states — including Colorado and Utah — reported their lowest snowpacks on record.
Some ski resorts are never open or offer limited activities. Most resorts close early, before April starts.
“Everybody in the industry is aware of the fact that winters are getting shorter and warmer,” Bodensteiner said.
Soldier Hollow was built approximately 5,600 feet above sea level to meet Olympic standards. That’s less skiing in Utah, so the terrain often straddles the line between snow and ice, making it vulnerable to climate change.
As a result, Soldier Hollow has invested in snowmaking technology, including 20 movable “fan guns” to blast snow onto the trails and 40 robotic, stationary “sticks” that make snow on fixed surfaces. Otherwise, Bodensteiner estimated, Soldier Hollow would have about 20 more days of skiing today than in 2002.
“About half of the season is on man-made ice,” he said.
He hopes that with the snow plowing test, Soldier Hollow will be the first Nordic skiing area to open next fall. The facility is also planning to upgrade its ice making equipment. If Snow Secure works, Bodensteiner wants to expand the program.
“If we get the results we think…
