So has there been any word on whether Cairngorm are going to continue the trial or possibly even extend the snowmaking to cover the whole of the M1 or Cas next year? Being able to offer the Cas, M1 and assuming there will be enough natural snow for the top lifts starting from Christmas would be a big improvement as people could plan trips in expectation rather than hope.

Would also be good if along with the new chair, Glenshee modernised/extended their snowmaking operation to cover the Cairnwell T-Bar as well as Claybokie. Well covering the whole Ski area would be even better but I'm guessing that 1 more run is realistic.

Just had a look at the lift operating days in the fantasy lift league thread. Interesting to note that in spite of the bumper snow falls the lifts at the Lecht with snowmaking capability still top the league.

A blog discussion around the virtual snow making aspect of the Fantasy Lift League is here: [www.winterhighland.info]

For those who don't want to read a longer technical explanation of how it was worked out, here is a graph showing the scenario for 1 to 5 snow guns (based on Ratnik Sky Giant IV guns) on the Sheiling Trainer Tow Area.



There were 2 target snow depths, 120cm above which only 25% of available snow making hours were used and 200cm above which no further snow making was used till the depth was below 200cm again. A nominal average depth of 30cm was deemed to count as an 'Open' day for the Sheiling Tow.

Some interesting examples of the use of man made snow and snow blankets on the Hintertuxer Glacier this weekend (see also Bothy for general pics).

The lower part of the glacier tongue to the Tuxerferner Haus is now equipped with Ratniks. Interestingly, given the very high temperatures being experiencedin the sun (20+C at 2800m !), this artificial surface actually provided the best sliding surface, even though it's the lowest part of the summer skiing area. It was also the best skiing surface on the final day we were there in absolute pissing wet rain.

Additionally, the lift company is now making extensive use of snow blankets to preserve natural and man made snow. Pic 7 shows a large area covered in blankets. The material is laid on the snow, secured with piste marker poles, and sealed with a blowtorch. Perspective is difficult to appreciate, but the average snow depth under the blanket is between 3 to 5 feet more than the surrounding areas. This particular snowfield had man made snow on the lower section.

Pic 8 shows the same field on the right. Just left of the rock in the centre is the piste currently in use. The strategy is that when this becomes unusable, the blankets come off the piste to the right as a new alternative run.

Also on the far left of this pic, are some chairlift pylons secured in glacier ice. These bases have also had snow pushed around them and blanket wrapped, so as to maintain the required depth to secure the pylons.

Pic 9 shows a traverse across bedrock with blanket wrapped snow above and below the traverse, which maintains the run back to the base of the Gefrorenewand chair.

Overall, therefore, compared to the real stuff, it seems that Ratnik produced snow provides a longer lasting and better sliding surface in warm and wet conditions. Wrapping snow in blankets over a wide area retains snow as either piste size large areas or as startegically positioned "stores" to push over disappearing pistes.

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Hotham, (Victoria, Australia) has invested $1.7m in snow-making this year.

An increase in snow-making of 40%.




The key word they use is investment.

Im i mistaken when i say, cairngorm only has one cannon!? But the lengths we go to just to ski is unreal. In the alpes im told they use liquid hydrogen and spray it out with the water to freeze it as snow so that can operate into high temps opposing to convensional snow cannons like the ones in scotland. Once the snow accumulates on the ground it creates a miniture atmosphere so it dosnt suffer from the heat nearly as much as if it was in the open air. Very much like penquins except the other way round. The problem glenshee has is that they only have that one little reservoir to cater for the whole area. But once the new chairlift is setup i think there could be early skiing at glenshee this year maybe, becasue artificial snow on claybokie is all we need. Its not much but its a start.

More accurate to say Cairngorm were planning to trail a snow cannon last year - needles to say it spent most of the time buried under a ton of snow. Ended up running it for fairly short period to make sure they could get it running. I think they are planning to give the trail another go this coming season - so that will be in about 3 months time!!!

haha, skis are already edged and waxed waiting to go.

Liquid Nitrogen is more likely if you were to do something like that, a Hydrogen based system would be too prone to explosions. However, i'm pretty certain that this isn't happening in the Alpes on a large scale, perhaps a few limited installations here and there, but no more. I did see some tower style snow cannons at Hunter Mountain NY once which looked like they had gas cylinders hooked up to them though.

I also once saw some pictures of the dry ski slope at High Wycombe covered in snow from cryo-snow cannons, so the technology does work. The dry ski slope is now closed, but Snowdome have proposed to build a covered slope on the site, but also keeping the existing outdoor slope and 'snowing it up' during the winter. Info on [www.wycombesummit.co.uk]. I think the planning permission was rejected, but it makes interesting reading. The fact that they reckoned it was worth trying to put artificial snow on an outdoor slope in southern england makes you think!

nitrogen, yeah more likely likely, sorry i knew it was one of the two. Might be going up to a glacier that operates summer skiing during my stay in the austria so will see what i can see

This picture shows a snow cannon with a Gas cylinder attached to it at Hunter Mountain NY. They had quite a few with these cylinders of both the fan and tower type.

Looking at the cylinder, I do wonder if it's actually regular butane/propane. You can run a camp fridge from butane, so you could probably cool a snow cannon with it as well to increase the operating range. You would probably only need something as extreme as liquid nitrogen (and all the issues it entails) to make snow in very high temps.



Edited 4 times. Last edit at 20.20hrs Mon 2 Aug 10 by tim1mw.

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Tim,

I'm guessing the propane is more likely for deicing the gun ?

By the way, it looks as though they have snow fencing in your picture. Is that right? It seems that there are very few ski areas in the world that don't deploy at least some fencing. I've seen it across the alps, Pyrenees, California and Canada.

I agree,

From my snowmaking experience due to the height of the gun, they will leave a tank with flame attachment (I think it can be seen hanging from the connected hose) that can be used whenever icing occurs. On some guns, and in some resorts, there is a nightshift de-icing team that go around de-icing the jets. As humphing a tank around aint easy, best leaving it up there I reckon!

or.....Get a Technoalpin instead!

Could be, whatever it was for they had cylinders next to a significant proportion of the guns, something i've not seen elsewhere.



It's very rare in the East Coast US areas i've been too (Mountain Creek, Hunter Mountain, Mount Snow, Stowe and Killington), while they do get a lot of wind, the skiing is entirely below the tree line so there is very little need for snow fencing, the trees do the job.



Edited 1 times. Last edit at 13.57hrs Wed 4 Aug 10 by tim1mw.

I've seen snow fencing in lots of places. Not that I've skied their but apparently some places around Banff /Sushine village maybe) extensively use snow fencing and actually have portable fences they use to make sure the snow sticks where it should.