• The ski resorts suffered from a complicated start to the season, many of them partially closing their areas.

  • Due to excessively high temperatures, the use of snow cannons was not sufficient to ensure full activity.

  • The TechnoAlpin company, which has supplied nearly 80% of ski resorts in France since 1990, has developed a new technology, the Snow Factory.

    It makes it possible to make artificial snow when the temperatures are positive.


Can snow cannons save ski resorts?

Faced with a lack of natural snow cover and almost spring-like weather (temperatures having sometimes flirted with 20 degrees), many of them experienced a difficult start to the season.

As of December 27, in the middle of the Christmas holidays, half of the French slopes were closed, according to Domaines skiables de France.

Some low-altitude resorts have even been forced to prematurely stop all of their ski lifts.

In this context, it is difficult to imagine that snow cannons could do better.

How to succeed in producing artificial snow if the temperatures are unfavorable to its maintenance?

Because it takes -5°C to get flakes.

But not only.

“The preparation of a ski area does not start on December 15.

We anticipate.

More than 60% of artificial snow production is done upstream, from the beginning of November and as soon as there is a cold window,” recalls Max Rougeaux, marketing manager for TechnoAlpin.

The Italian company TechnoAlpin - one of whose two French subsidiaries is based in Dardilly near Lyon - has been supplying snow guns since 1990 to nearly 80% of ski resorts in France.

The quick fix?

Sometimes it just takes a little.

With a “properly sized” snowmaking system, it takes “72 hours to produce the snow and prepare the first layer”.

"It's not huge, it can go relatively quickly," said Max Rougeaux.

But if the cold periods were to fail, as has been the case since the beginning of the year, the company has designed a new technology called “Snow Factory”.

A snow farm.

A system capable of producing artificial snow "24 hours a day, 7 days a week", when the temperatures are positive.

The designers of this system claim to be able to make snow up to 35°C.

“This time, the freezing is done in the ambient air, explains the marketing manager.

A large container, equipped with ice generators, cools the water.

Then, we will create chips that will be expelled outside”.

If this technology "is not yet really developed", it is however "not intended to replace snow guns" which remain essential to "maintain a strong tourist activity".

But "it can be used as a production supplement on a snow background, in specific areas", specifies Max Rougeaux.

Eco-friendly technology?

And where does the water come from that will be turned into snow?

The TechnoAlpin company, indicating that it is “taken from its natural environment”, then “frozen before being returned to nature”.

The skier sees nothing but fire, she assures.

“The snow we produce is no longer the same as what we produced 40 years ago.

At the time, the snow was a little harder.

Today, we can adjust the quality of the snow with more powdery snow, harder snow, explains Max Rougeaux.

Once it is groomed, the skier does not see the difference, especially since in general, you ski on one volume of artificial snow for ten volumes of natural snow.

In terms of quality, there is no difference when the snow is well worked.

»

But as we know, nothing beats significant natural rainfall.

The recent snowfall, recorded in the past few days, has offered respite to many resorts.

Until when ?


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