, a small ski area at聽California鈥檚 Donner Summit near Lake Tahoe, will use聽new technology this summer that'll allow it聽to make snow regardless of air聽temperature.
Until now, snowmaking machines like the ones used at most U.S. ski resorts聽required air temperatures of 28 degrees or lower in order to operate. But Boreal鈥檚 machine, called the 聽(made by Italian company TechnoAlpin), produces icy snow crystals inside a temperature-regulated sea container before spraying them onto the slopes.聽
鈥淚t can be 80 or 90 degrees outside and the Snow Factory can still make snow,鈥 says Robin Smith, head of strategy and business development for the U.S. headquarters of TechnoAlpin. 鈥淭he only catch is how long will the snow last in 90-degree weather? It鈥檚 so frozen, it鈥檒l last longer than you think, but obviously, it鈥檒l melt faster the warmer it is outside.鈥
Smith says the ideal range for the machine is anywhere above 28 degrees and below about 75 degrees.
Boreal is the first ski area in the U.S. to test the machine, but聽it's been used in Europe by a handful of national cross country ski teams and ski resorts. Boreal will be using the machine for their for skiers and snowboarders, which run from June to August.聽鈥淚t鈥檚 such a new product that nobody has ever seen what it鈥檚 capable of yet,鈥 says Phoebe Mills, director of operations for Woodward Tahoe. 鈥淏ut Boreal has a uniquely perfect application for this. We want to be able to have our ski camps on snow through August. Plus, it鈥檒l help us secure an early opening season this fall.鈥澛燘oreal also plans to open for two public access ski days this summer, on June 18 and July 2.
So how exactly does the Snow Factory work? First, it arrives by truck in a giant steal shipping container. That container has large refrigerated cylinders where small ice crystals are made (sort of like a giant ice maker), and then a conveyor belts spits the ice crystals onto the ground. Boreal will be mixing the manmade snow with harvested 25-foot-high piles of snow they鈥檝e saved from this winter to build lift-accessed terrain park features like jumps and rails.
Each Snow Factory requires about four to five times the energy consumption of a normal snowmaker, but it uses less water鈥攁bout 13 to 18 gallons per聽minute, compared to a traditional snow gun鈥檚 100 gallons per聽minute. One Snow Factory machine costs roughly half a million dollars, compared to a standard snow machine鈥檚 approximately $38,000.
These machines, in theory, could help ski areas facing warmer weather because of climate change. But many聽areas聽know that no amount of聽snowmaking infrastructure can聽replace mother nature as temps continue to rise.聽“When you look at studies predicting聽snowpack聽in the U.S. by 2100, there's a map showing 100 percent loss of聽snowpack聽at certain elevations on the East Coast and West Coast. What can resorts do about that?” asks Auden聽Schendler, vice president of sustainability at Aspen Skiing Company.聽“They can diversify their businesses. And they can improve snowmaking so you when you have smaller windows of cold temperatures, you can blast a huge volume of snow out…but if that's our response to this bigger issue, then we've got a problem. When you start looking at the idea of adaptation, you realize there is no adaptation and it sort of pushes you into the climate activism channel.”
For their part,聽TechnoAlpin isn鈥檛 positioning their machines to replace normal snowmaking technology or as the last,聽best chance to save ski areas. They know the聽size, price tag, and energy usage are too large.聽鈥淵ou wouldn鈥檛 install these all over a ski area and hope that鈥檚 the future of snowmaking,鈥 says Smith. 鈥淚t鈥檚 more for special events, when nothing else works. We think the biggest application will be tubing parks and rail parks, places where you鈥檙e not talking about a huge amount of snow.鈥