The limits of making snow are not exhausted yet

Despite increasingly warm winters, low-lying ski areas also have a future if they have an efficient snowmaking system.

“From a purely technical point of view, the limits of snowmaking in Switzerland are far from exhausted,” says Martin Hofer, Sales Manager of Technoalpin Switzerland, the world market leader in snowmaking systems. With a modern snowmaking system, a ski area can be completely covered with snow in three to four days. “This is standard value,” Hofer says in an interview with AWP news agency.

However, many systems in Switzerland cannot reach this value because the water supply is too low. Abroad, operators rely heavily on snow machines: in Switzerland there is artificial snow on just over half of the miles of slopes, compared to 95 percent in South Tyrol.

Switzerland has technical potential

However, a profit making system alone is not enough. There is always the question of how powerful the system is, how much snow it can make at what temperature and when. “Switzerland still has enormous technical potential,” says the head of the snowgun manufacturer from Bolzano.

Currently, several time intervals with cold temperatures are needed for snow making on the slopes in this country. Because artificial snow production requires an air temperature of -10 to +1 degrees and the lowest possible humidity. To do this, Hofer says, you need to use cold periods that will continue to exist even as climate change leads to higher temperatures.

The most important months for snowmaking are November and December. In cold weather, a ski resort can start the season regardless of snowfall and provide good slope conditions. This is particularly important for the Christmas business, where it generates more than a quarter of industry turnover.

Natural snow melts faster than artificial snow

Hofer says that when the slopes are covered with snow, they hold up even when the temperature is above freezing. This is because artificial snow melts more slowly than natural snow.

Without a snowmaking system, the risk of starting the ski season wrong is much greater: it not only needs temperatures below freezing, but also precipitation. According to Hofer, when the important Christmas business falls due to lack of snow, the season is long over.

In Switzerland, even lower ski areas are not at the end of their potential. Hofer says that with a more powerful system, they could cut the time to make profits in half. This will allow them to keep the slopes open even as the number of cold days decreases due to climate change.

Hofer says that this is not possible because the water supply is too low at many factories in Switzerland. These could not snow on all slopes at the same time. Then it takes longer to snow on the ski area. “If you haven’t finished the last slope and you have to snow again on the first slope, you’ll have problems if there are only three to four cold periods to make snow,” says the expert.

What is missing in many ski areas?

Many Swiss ski areas do not have water reservoirs and pumping stations. This requires investment. According to Hofer, the rule of thumb is CHF 1 million per kilometer of slopes.

Hofer says many places wouldn’t have ski tourism without artificial snow: “No snow, that’s it.” When mountain railways get sick, Alpine valleys get sick. Because it provides more than 6 million added value for every million valleys that tourists spend on mountain railways.

Because the ski pass is only an expense item while skiing. There would also be travel, food, accommodation, ski rental or ski instructor expenses. If the ski areas were only open for 30 days instead of 100 days, there would be no point in investing in hotels, restaurants or other services.

This will also affect local businesses. The economic base of many Alpine valleys, and with it tens of thousands of jobs, will be threatened. The result will be a migration from the valleys.

There are criticisms of the water and electricity requirements of snowmaking systems. Researchers at the University of Basel have calculated that water consumption for artificial snow will increase significantly if climate change continues unabated.

They estimate that for the entire Andermatt-Sedrun-Disentis ski area, water consumption will be around 80 percent higher by the end of the century. In other ski areas the need is sometimes several times greater.

Criticism calculations

Today, some of the water used to make snow in the largest part of Andermatt-Sedrun-Disentis comes from Lake Oberalp. “Here there will likely be conflicts between the water requirements for the ski area and those for electricity generation,” said the study by the University of Basel.

Hofer criticizes these calculations: Hydropower plants as well as snowmaking systems will use water times. In addition, water is not consumed, it is accumulated in a different physical state than snow on the mountain. In the spring, when the snow melts, the water flows back into the valley. Hofer says evaporation losses are low when making snow.

And the power consumption of snowmaking systems is only about 0.1 percent of Swiss power consumption. Also, more modern snowmaking systems are more efficient: “In Davos, the energy overflowing from the mountain railway’s own reservoirs is used to generate energy. This allows us to meet 63 percent of our electricity needs for snowmaking,” says Hofer.