![]() ![]() “Think of it like a very sophisticated version of the ice maker in your refrigerator,” said Hendrikx. ![]() ![]() Among those machines was a new piece of technology used at a training center for China’s athletes: the SnowFactory. To work around Mother Nature, TechnoAlpin told CNN that it began shipping a full arsenal of snow guns, fan-driven snow generators and cooling towers to Beijing in 2018. To accommodate warmer temperatures and lower elevations, a different approach needs to be taken. Traditionally, snow-making has relied heavily on snow guns and temperatures at or below freezing. “This is not your ‘light fluffy’ snow that you might think of – it is much denser and not very soft.” “There have been recent technological advances that allow for the generation of snow when it is above freezing,” explained Jordy Hendrikx, the director of the Snow and Avalanche Laboratory at Montana State University. Yanqing and Zhangjiakou, which are higher elevation venues, are cooler, with average high temperatures that peak above freezing and lows that fall to around -10 degrees Celsius at night. The average annual snowfall in Yanqing (where the Alpine slopes are) and Zhangjiakou (where many of the other events are held, including the biathlon) is roughly 20 centimeters (7.8 inches), although higher snow years have been recorded.Ī staff member drives a snow-grooming machine at Big Air Shougang on February 1. The region surrounding the outdoor Olympic venues is in an extreme drought this winter, but even in normal years, it isn’t particularly suitable for snow sports. Elite athletes also say that the sports themselves become trickier and less safe when human-made snow is involved. Just one of the 21 cities that have hosted the Winter Olympics in the past 50 years will have a climate suitable for winter sports by the end of the century, a recent study found, if fossil fuel emissions remain unchecked.Īs the planet warms and the weather becomes increasingly more erratic, natural snow is becoming less reliable for winter sports, which forces venues to lean more on artificial snow.īut it comes at a cost: human-made snow is incredibly resource-intensive, requiring massive amounts of energy and water to produce in a climate that’s getting warmer and warmer. In an Olympic first, though not an achievement to boast about, climate variability has forced the Winter Games to be virtually 100% reliant on artificial snow – part of a trend that is taking place across winter sports venues around the world. (Photo by Lu Lin/CHINASPORTS/VCG via Getty Images) Lu Lin/China Sports/VCG/Getty ImagesĪn Olympics like no other: Can sports overcome the controversy of Beijing 2022? ZHANGJIAKOU, CHINA - FEBRUARY 03: Su Yiming of Team China attends the snowboard slopestyle training session ahead of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games at the Genting Snow Park on Februin Zhangjiakou, Hebei Province of China. ![]()
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