Welcome Innsbruck - Winter 2017/18

W E L C O M E 22 W I N T E R D A S W A S S E R I M S C H N E E Die Schneequalität wird in erster Linie durch den Wassergehalt be- einflusst. Im Wesentlichen gibt es fünf Qualitäten. Lässt sich Schnee nicht zu einem Ball pressen, ist es Pulverschnee. Er enthält extrem wenig Wasser. Die nächste Stufe ist der unter Skifahrern begehrte Champagner-Powder – immer noch sehr trocken und nur wenig verzahnend. Feuchtschnee klebt unter Druck zusammen – perfekt für Schneebälle. Es lässt sich kein Wasser herauspressen wie beim Nassschnee, der sehr schwer und nass und klebrig-weich ist. Knetet man ihn, wirkt er leicht gräulich. Eine Sonderform ist der Sulzschnee – nasser Altschnee. Die Grenze des Feuchtschnees ist hierbei der Firn, der nach kurzer Zeit in Sulz übergeht. Die wasserhaltigste Stufe ist sogenannter Faulschnee, ein Gemisch aus Wasser und größeren Schneebrocken, die kaum mehr zusammenhalten. T H E W A T E R I N T H E S N O W Snow quality is determined primarily by water content. Basically, there are five different qualities. If snow can’t be pressed into balls, it is pow- der snow (Pulverschnee). It contains an extremely small amount of water. The next category is champagne powder, coveted by skiers, still very dry and not very adhesive. Moist snow (Feuchtschnee) sticks to- gether under pressure, perfect for snowballs. No water can be pressed from it as in the case of wet snow (Nassschnee), which is very heavy and sticky and soft. When kneaded, it appears slightly greyish. A spe- cial form is Sulzschnee, old wet snow. The limit of moist snow in this case is Firn (corn snow), which after a short time transforms into Sulz (brawn). The type of snow with the highest water content is so-called Faulschnee (lit. foul snow), a mixture of water and larger chunks of snow, which hardly hold together anymore. is produced by snow machines, depending on the energy and quantity of water used as well as the environmental conditions, i.e. primarily humidity and temperature. “We don’t know,” says Rothleitner. Tests in cold chamber may be possible, but they don’t provide the answers one might be looking for: “In cold chambers the temperature can be controlled and thus stand- ardised conditions created, but due to the amounts of water used for the tests the humidity too rises massively within a short time. So that the data gained provide no possible orientation for snowmaking outdoors.” Without this knowledge, snowmaking can be controlled only to a certain degree. The fine-tuning is missing. This fine-tuning, however, would be desirable both from an ecological and an economical point of view in order to act more resource-efficiently, in a bespoke manner, as it were. So as to move closer to answering these fundamental questions, Sch- neezentrum Tirol was founded, which is going to set up the first open- air snow laboratory in the world in Kühtai this coming winter. Which is going to examine the efficiency of snow machines, with the purpose of determining those parameters that can be influenced in the interest of a ecologically and economically viable production of snow. Sounds easy, but it’s anything but. The devil, as usual, is in the detail. H O W M U C H ? For example, there’s the perfectly banal question as to how to measure the quantity of snow produced. “You need large-scale volume meas- urement for relatively small amounts of snow. Theoretically, there are several methods available, yet in practice – i.e. in the open-air lab – this has never been done,” says Rothleitner. Measuring a heap of snow in the cold chamber is not a problem. In the open terrain, though, where there’s rarely no wind at all and where the snow consequently is spread across a wider area, this is a challenge which now requires some expe- riences to be made. What the lab also plans to measure, which can’t be measured as yet, is the humidity of the snow. After all, snow quality is mainly deter- mined by the water content. Too little water makes the snow too pow- dery, so that it can’t be worked on. Too much humidity uselessly wastes resources. “Snow humidity is measured at the lab by way of computer tomography. Smaller quantities of snow are examined microscopical- ly. This is out of the question for the open-air lab.” In the meantime, there are three prototypes of measuring probe that could be used, two of which have been developed in Innsbruck. These devices have to be tested now in practice. Once the questions concerning the measuring of snow volume and humidity are answered, the actual testing of the various snow ma- chines gets underway. “This coming winter we will mainly experiment with add-on technology. We will not be testing new snow machines, that is, but we will try to improve the output of existing snow machines.” T H E J O B “Tyrol,” Rothleitner says, “is the world’s leading winter sport destination. Which also entails an obligation.” As long as the ecological and econom- ical framework conditions allow, winter sport will be a feature of this and other countries. The research into resource-efficient solutions is still in a fairly early stage, but steps are being undertaken as we speak. The in- terest of all the protagonists in a holistic and sustainable development of winter sport is enormous. Tourism, industry and science consequently are closing ranks. “Together, we want to solve the challenges of climate change as best we can,” says Rothleitner. “Winter,” the American writer Sin- clair Lewis once wrote, “is not a season, it’s an occupation.” How well we deal with this occupation, will be shown in the winters to come. W Michael Rothleitner ist Leiter des Schneezentrum Tirol. // Michael Rothleitner is the manager of Schneezentrum Tirol. © ANDREAS FRIEDLE