Nordic skiing: artificial snow as a back-up plan in Trondheim
With just under a month to go before the start of the Nordic World Ski Championships in Trondheim (Norway), the facilities are taking shape at the Granåsen stadium. However, the mild temperatures in Norway are causing some concern among the organisers: “We were a bit worried because there was a lot of rain and wind. The snow was melting on the parts of the track where we don’t have artificial snow,” Kristin Murer Stemland, operational director and sports manager for Trondheim 2025, told TV2.
Nevertheless, the organisers have prepared a contingency plan: stockpiling artificial snow. “If we want to welcome the athletes, we have to stockpile snow. Otherwise, it will only be when it gets cold, and you never know what winter is made of,” says Paal Bjoerseth, Director of Operations at Granåsen.
The Trondheim site therefore already had a stock of almost 35,000 cubic metres of snow as winter approached. This snow has been processed on the main tracks that the athletes will be using. To date, 20,000 new cubic metres have been produced and laid out on the course.
“We have to provide a guarantee to the FIS. We have created a plan with the municipality of Trondheim, in which snow storage is a very important part. If all the snow disappears, then we’ll be doing smaller loops. But we hope to be able to offer some nice, longer runs. It’s a security for us to have this pile of snow,” admits Kristin Murer Stemland.
Key climate issues
In collaboration with the organisation, the “Snow for the future” project has been launched to find solutions for developing efficient, climate-friendly snow production.
“There are no concrete figures, but on the basis of the calculations we have made, we can see that snow storage and all that it implies for the climate footprint is the most environmentally friendly way, says Ole Marius Moen, project director. We don’t use city water or anything like that. We use water from a natural waterfall. Then there’s the electricity needed to run the pumps. Its production is completely environmentally friendly.”
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