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Snowfarming

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In recent years, it has become increasingly clear how valuable snow is as a resource. Winters with little snow hit the tourist areas in the Alpine valleys hard and show how dependent even higher-lying ski resorts are on the precious white. For some years now, winter sports resorts have increasingly relied on snow farming to store snow over the summer. For this purpose, piles of technical snow several meters thick are produced outdoors at suitable locations towards the end of winter and covered with an insulating layer, e.g. sawdust or wood chips. This insulating layer protects the snow underneath from melting. The snow preserved in this way serves as a base for the preparation of cross-country ski trails, ski slopes or ski jumps at the beginning of the following winter. Snowfarming largely enables an early start to the winter season regardless of the weather or a guarantee of snow on day X for a sports event.

Already in 2008, the first field trials were carried out in a joint project of the SLF, the municipality and the Davos Tourism Association to test whether snowfarming is at all possible at lower altitudes and which covering methods are most suitable. It became very clear that the thick sawdust layer counteracts melting much better than the comparatively thin geotextiles. Only just a quarter of the snow melted under the sawdust cover. At that time, a 500-meter cross-country ski trail could be built from the remaining snow pile in the fall. The success of 2008 prompted the municipality of Davos to continue and expand snow farming to this day. In the meantime, the over-summer snow at the end of October is sufficient for a good four kilometers of cross-country ski trail.

Information source: slf.ch


Photo: Destination Davos Klosters/Marcel Giger


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