Sustainability
Storyteller Labs
Georg Eisath, father of former World Cup blue Florian Eisath, founder of TechnoAlpin and manager of the Carezza ski lifts, tells us about his concept of sustainability in Val d’Ega.
Monday 30 August 2021 4 minutes reading time
In recent years, the high climatic temperatures and global warming have led ski resorts to the need to resort to artificial snow with snow guns in order to guarantee ski slopes in excellent condition during the winter season.
But can artificial snowmaking be sustainable? To give us an answer is Georg Eisath, founder of TechnoAlpin (multinational giant in the production of snow cannons) and manager of the Carezza ski lifts, who gave birth to the "Alpine climatic ski area" project and developed a software to improve the effectiveness of cannons:
"In our ski area, artificial snow has been sustainable for several years. We have tried to position the pond for water collection in an area where we spend the least amount of energy. We only produce the snow we need at low temperatures, at about -7 °, and we snow the slopes at the beginning of winter, on the coldest days, in about 50 hours. These optimal conditions allow us to maintain a soft snow cover until the end of the season with reduced water and energy consumption. for example a 50% drop in air pressure, so half the energy. "
For the preparation of the slopes, every evening 5 snow cats spread and cut snow on 100 hectares of tracks for an average of 6 working hours per night:
"Snow cats are equipped with a GPS system that monitors their activity and records their path. Thanks to snow depth measurement and GPS data, you avoid having a snow groomer pass over the same spot more than once. reducing fuel consumption by about 25%. "With pre-established routes, the snow cats stay on for up to an hour less per car per day. Initially we would cover the entire width of the track, now we only hit what is needed to meet the needs of skiers ".
"By using these systems that allow us to save energy and diesel, we can also speak of economic sustainability since a drop in consumption also corresponds to a drop in costs. And this has always been our main goal and now we are working to improve the software for the next few years ”concludes Georg Eisath.
Over the years, in fact, Georg Eisath has collected a large amount of data which he used to optimize the guns, managing to save up to two thirds of the standard price for each kilo of snow produced.
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