Sochi officials study snowmaking
Tuesday August 24, 2010 - Email this article to a friend

Senior members of the Russian Olympic Organising Committee have visited the Austrian resort of Pitzal.

It has an IDE all weather snow-making system.

It is capable of making large volumes of snow even when the temperature is above freezing and it has been installed on the glaciers of Zermatt in Switzerland and Pitztal in Austria. 

Both resorts want to gaurantee snow cover in the autumn when natural snowfall is not certain but both areas want to be sure they can open.

Last February at the Winter Olympics the Cypress Mountain area had huge problems and had to fly in snow by helicopter after an long warm spell prevented the resorts making snow.

We reported on it at the time here on PlanetSKI.

The events did take place but it cost huge amounts of money and was disruptive.

The Russian delegation included the president of the Russian Ski Federation, senior members of the country's Olympic Organising Committee and members of the international ski federation, FIS.

There were also senior staff from the key Russian ski resorts where The Olympics will be staged near Sochi in 2014.

With temperatures peaking at +25c IDE and Pitztal created a 200m long area of snow for testing.

The resort is currently closed to the general public until its season begins in September.

Several pro racers gave demonstrations on the snow, which was 20 metres wide and 60cm.

Sochi has also been looking at the possibilites of cloud seeding as we have reported in this related story.

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