SKI OPERATIONS

Ski operations consist of all the equipment needed in order to keep the ski slope in a good condition.  The T-Bar drag lift is on the main ski slope which is 1 km long (weather depending) and runs from the bottom to the top station.  We have added 3 additional rope lifts at the bottom of the slope which is extended from the bottom station with 300m towards the ski shop; this will allow more space for our beginners with less extreme conditions and shorter queues at the main ski lift for our more advanced skiers

We make use of a Piston Bullies (snow grooming equipment) to groom the slope and keep it in excellent conditions for all our skiers and ensure pleasant ski experience.  A brand new access control system is added at the bottom station to control access to the slope and ski lift.

With the right temperatures we are able to make snow at night and thus guarantee snow during the ski season.  We make use of Rebis snow guns that situated along the slope and are approximately 45m apart from each other and can each make more than 30 cube meter of snow per hour at -8 degrees Celsius and colder, we also have a York fan gun that could make as much snow as 3 Rebis guns together.  With this type of equipment we can ensure even snow spread on the slope

In the early to mid 20th century, the sport of snow skiing skyrocketed in popularity. As more and more people discovered the sport and made it a yearly tradition, ski slopes became extremely profitable businesses. But resort owners had a major problem: In their line of work, success was completely dependent on the weather. If it didn't snow, or didn't snow enough, they had to close everything down until the weather decided to cooperate. In many parts of the world, the skiing season was limited to a month or two.

The solution, of course, was to figure out a way to make snow when you needed it, in case nature failed to provide. The result was an invention called the snow gun . This device proved useful even when natural snow was plentiful because it gave resort owners greater control over the consistency of the top layer of snow, allowing them to create better skiing conditions. These days, snow-making machines are standard equipment in the vast majority of ski resorts around the world. They have made it possible for many resorts to stay open four months or more a year, and there are even a few indoor slopes that stay open year-round!

As we've seen, the main job of snow-making machines is to do the work of snow-making clouds that occur naturally in the atmosphere. These machines do not make snow under just any conditions, however -- you need to have the right kind of ground weather, just as you need the right kind of ground weather for natural snow to make it to the earth and then stick. To figure out when to make snow, and to make sure they get the right kind of snow, ski resorts depend on the expertise of experienced snow machine operators, commonly called snow-makers .

So how do snow-makers determine if the conditions are right? It turns out they need a lot more information than they can get from an ordinary thermometer . Standard thermometers measure the dry bulb temperature of the atmosphere; but the most important factor for snow conditions is the wet bulb temperature.

The wet bulb temperature is a function of the dry bulb temperature and the relative humidity , the amount of water vapor in the air. Liquid or solid water cools itself by evaporating some water as water vapor. This releases heat, and so lowers the energy level in the water. When there is more water vapor in the atmosphere, water or snow can't evaporate as much because the air is already saturated with water to a high degree. Consequently, water cools more slowly when the humidity is high, and more quickly when the humidity is low.

For this reason, humidity is a very important factor in determining snow conditions. If the humidity level is low enough, you can actually get snow even when the dry bulb temperature is several degrees above freezing. If the relative humidity is 100 percent, then the wet bulb temperature and the dry bulb temperature will be exactly the same. But even if both are at the freezing temperature, you might get rain instead of snow because the air saturation slows the cooling process down so much.

If the temperature is around 30 F (-1 C), you need a fairly low relative humidity (less than 30 percent) for good snow-making conditions. If the temperature is less than 20 F (-6.7 C), you can make snow fairly easily even if the relative humidity is 100 percent. A temperature in the teens is ideal for snow-making.

So we've seen that the basic idea of snow guns is pretty simple. Actually making snow can be a bit more complex, however. The wet bulb temperature has to be low enough, and snow-makers must carefully balance the levels of water and air to get the desired results.

There are all different kinds of snow. The main difference between snow types is how much water a certain volume of snow holds. Snow-makers often talk about dry snow and wet snow . Dry snow has a relatively low amount of water, so it is very light and powdery. This type of snow is excellent for skiing because skis glide over it easily without getting stuck in wet slush.

One of the advantages of using a snow maker is that you can make sure the slope's surface level always has this ideal, powdery snow. Wet snow also plays an important role on ski slopes, however. Resort owners use this denser snow to build up the snow level on well-travelled trails. Many resorts build up the snow depth this way once or twice a year, and then regularly coat the trails with a layer of dry snow throughout the winter.

The density , or wetness, of snow is dependent on the temperature and humidity outside, as well as the size of the water droplets launched by the gun. Snow-makers have to adjust the proportions of water and air in their snow guns to get the perfect snow consistency for the outdoor weather conditions. Since temperature and humidity levels vary considerably from point to point on a ski slope, snow-makers have to adjust each machine accordingly.