PiedmontSNOWFARMING
Riale, a Piedmontese village in Val Formazza, has filed last season's snow under geothermal sheets with the snowfarming technique, which in October will cover 3 km of slopes and start the winter season early.
Wednesday 22 June 2022 6 minutes reading time
Over 8,000 cubic meters of snow, stored with the aim of anticipating the next cross-country skiing season between the end of October and the beginning of November, covering almost 3 km of track: it is the snowfarming technique that Gianluca Barp, first in Italy, has put a punto a Riale, a small village nestled at 1,800 meters in the Alta Val Formazza in Piedmont, a few steps from the choreographic Cascata del Toce, where the Piedmontese entrepreneur is in charge of the Centro Fondo.
With twice as much snow as in 2020, Barp is planning the next winter season in this hot summer. For the fourth consecutive year, it will be able to offer athletes and national cross-country skiing teams the opportunity to anticipate training in view of competitions and the numerous fans of the discipline the opportunity to enjoy sporting activity earlier than usual.
“I started almost for fun in 2019 by keeping 2,500 cubic meters of snow. An artisan experiment that helped me to understand that by investing in new technologies I could really do something very useful for cross-country athletes and for our Valley - explains Gianluca Barp -. In the following years I have refined the technique, chosen the best and most sheltered storage position from the sun in the summer months and I have increased the amount of snow collected. 4,000 cubic meters in 2020, 6,000 in 2021 and today we reach 8,000. I calculated that about 20% of it is lost, the rest is all snow as new, ready to be spread on the track and used by cross-country skiers to anticipate their training or fun ".
The innovative snowfarming technique has been widespread for years mainly in Northern Europe, from Sweden to Finland, but also in Switzerland in Davos and, on the national territory, in Livigno. Barp was the first private entrepreneur to have tested it up to bring it up to speed in Italy: an optimal solution for the ski market, which requires an increasingly early start to the season compared to a climate that delays winter. and makes it increasingly difficult to open the plants.
The 8000 cubic meters of snow were covered by technological geothermal sheets with aluminum fibers, interspersed with insulating layers of wadding thanks to the technical support of Snow Makers, a Swiss specialist company. The sheets were then tied to each other with a system of velcro and thread seams. These special roofing materials guarantee the double benefit of thermally protecting the underlying mass and, thanks to the reflective action, of not letting UVA rays penetrate. The snow will remain packed under the sheets throughout the summer season and will be laid in the autumn. According to estimates, most of the stored snow will be used to cover about 3 km of the Riale cross-country track ring (overall over 12 km long), allowing a first sporting activity even in the absence of snow and without resorting to snow guns and therefore to the excessive use of electricity and water.
Compared to previous years, Barp has also decided not to lay all the stored snow, but to keep part of it as a possible reserve for any need and which will therefore continue to be kept even with the start of the next winter season.
The snowfarming technique is just one of the "arrows" at the Riale arch, a ski destination that year after year gathers more and more enthusiasts, professionals and not.
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