Snowkeeper

[Swedice]

Another question to the specialists:

We would like to know if someone has experience with the following:

There is a system in the market which can be installed around the "gate or entrances" of ski lifts. This mat system is placed on the floor and keeps the floor at a minus temperature. The floor will be ice and this result in that the floor will not be muddy. It will be installed where there is a lot of movement per sqm. The systems looks like a mat with tubes on it and connected to a small chiller. They call it the snowkeeper.

As our company provide almost the same matsystem but then used for icerink purposes, but we never saw the system installed in a ski area we were wondering if you did see it ?

Thanks

Dick

[miki]

Sorry, I newer saw anything like that and also never heared about it. But in my opinion the idea is interesting . Of course, there will again be a lot of opposition against the idea because of the energy consumption, but as long as only small areas like lift entrances are involved, it should be OK. When the weather is warm, the snow often melts not only from 'above' because of the warm air, but also 'upside down', when the floor gets warm/wet/muddy. The muddy floor results in brown snow, which melts even more rapidly. In spring time it is not unusual that 'fresh' snow (usualy from a pile of man-made snow) has to be put around lift entrances every evening, and by the end of the next day its all gone again. So I am sure that keeping the floor at low temperatures should diminish the melting of snow essentially, thus lower the amount of artifitial snow that has to be produced to cover lift entrances - and in turn some energy could even be saved?? Of course, one should make exact calculations (energy consumption of the mats vs. energy consumption of snowmakers).

@Gletscherfans: stellt euch solche Matten z. B. am Weg vom Gletscherende zum Einstieg GB III in Tux vor. Der Schnee würde doch wesentlich länger halten, und die Fläche ist auch nicht soo gross. Das man mit diesem System nicht ganze Pisten kühlen kann ist sogar mir klar, aber an besonders exponierten Stellen - warum nicht wenigstens probieren??

[starli]

@Gletscherfans: stellt euch solche Matten z. B. am Weg vom Gletscherende zum Einstieg GB III in Tux vor. Der Schnee würde doch wesentlich länger halten, und die Fläche ist auch nicht soo gross. Das man mit diesem System nicht ganze Pisten kühlen kann ist sogar mir klar, aber an besonders exponierten Stellen - warum nicht wenigstens probieren??

Ich denke:
a) Wird der Schnee auf dem Weg von oben tauen, nicht von unten=> So eine Matte ist dann interessant, wenn der Boden im Herbst noch zu warm ist und der Schnee noch nicht hält
b) Würde bei der GB3-Zufahrt eine "Sonnenschutzüberdachung" sicher mehr bringen :)