History of SNOW 365 Technology

But to understand the pros and cons of indoor snow we have to travel back in time to 1986 when a number of new systems were emerging.  At the time snow making at conventional ski resorts was getting ever more advanced and the idea of creating snow indoors and keeping it cool enough for prolonged operation no longer seemed so fanciful.

Casablanca initially used a ‘gel like polymer’ product during its first test seasons, before incorporating  ‘Permasnow’ , a variant on a similar theme, invented by an Australian man, Alf Bucceri.  This was a mix of water and some chemicals that formed a ‘snow like substance’;.  Just how snow like it was depended on your point of few, but Permasnow wasn’t a huge hit with users of Casablanca and the first Australian year-round commercial indoor slope at Mt Thebarton in Adelaide.  This was also the world’s first indoor slope to continue operation year round, Casablanca had only opened for two winters with their indoor snow product previously.  Mt Thebarton opened its snow slope in 1988 but quickly changed to a new system, ProSnow.  Casablanca made a similar change.  However the Permasnow patent was sold to a Japanese company, and Japan is still opening domes with the same or a similar product, (known as ‘Snova’) and exporting it to other countries.  SNOVA’s own patented snow was co-invented in 1987 by Masahisa Otsuka, a former SANYO refrigeration engineer who established his company in 1992 and opened his first indoor slope at Kyoto in 1995.

Casablanca Dome - Belguim

The ProSnow idea was  the 'sloping ice rink' which has subsequently been used in about a quarter of the existing snow domes for skiing and snowboarding.  There are different ways in which this technology can be applied, and the manufacturers and naturally cagey about the technology – party as the history of indoor snow making has been one of patents and in some cases manufacturers fearing their patents have been ripped off. 

However some of the slopes using a ProSnow (or ‘ProSnow-like’) system have a refrigerated grid identical to that use in ice rinks around the world.  However instead of keeping the surface smooth for ice skating you encourage ice crystals to form and scrape the surface to create a soft snow surface.  At some slopes, such as England’s Tamworth, some users have complained that the surface layer is very thin, only half an inch; but this need not be the case.  In fact ProSnow can create snow of a more reasonable depth.  The surface is also not scraped in many versions and the snow is created using another, confidential, process. 

Mt. Thebarton - Australia

‘Mt TheBarton changed from Permasnow to this type of system and domes in Europe have opened with it, notably England’s Tamworth dome.  Casablanca have subsequently patented their own product, which is similar but they believe has a more ‘real snow like’ feel and consistency. The next idea, pioneered in England by a company called Acer Snowmec from 1988 is arguably the closest to the process involved in making snow outdoors as ski resorts do all over the world.  However to do this you need to create a refrigeration unit which can produce air temperatures as low as minus six degrees Celsius to make the snow.  None-the-less about a quarter of the world's existing domes use this system or a variation on it developed independently until Acer Snomec finally got a full-scale system operating at Xscape Milton Keynes.  Since then the company has been involved with most of the recent big-league developments including the second Xscape and Spain’s Xanadu. Since the opening of the SSAWS dome in 1993 all subsequent dome projects have been smaller in scale, although new Dutch and German developments do rival it for length, if not width and plans for Dubai and the US are also nearing the SSAWS scale.

In the meantime most snow domes have successfully developed their own systems ranging from ice flake production (e.g. Snow Valley, Snow Planet) to several types of snow guns or snow lances (Snow World, Ice Mountain, Allrounder, Ski Dome, Snow Dome, Montana, etc.). Ice flake systems (such as Frigo France and Snowteam) originated from the food industry and convert ice flakes to smaller snow or ice particles with the advantage that the systems work at any ambient temperature and are also used for events and lower mountain areas. Domes using the sub-zero snowgun system included the world's most impressive – the ill fated SSAWS / Zaus dome in Tokyo which closed in September 2002.  That dome cost 400 million US dollars to build and cost $40 million (US) per year to run.  The operators hoped that it would break-even 18 years after it was built (By 2011) based on an annual incomes of $104 million.  This is different from most other less ambitious projects which can make a profit within 6 months to two years.

SSAWS - Japan

The snow lance systems use normal or chilled water and air, which is sprayed under pressure through nozzles. Subsequently the snow crystals grow in a below freezing environment during their travel through the air. (Most snow dome operate at –2 to –6 degrees Celsius or 30 – 23 degrees F). These systems basically all work the same as the systems used in the mountains, except that they are made to scale to service the smaller indoor environments. Most important is the balance between the production capacity and the indoor climate and humidity control. Otherwise it would start to rain. The snow made by all of these systems is very similar. A possible way of comparing is the price and efficiency or in other words the energy consumption and the ability to still operate at relatively high humidity or closer to zero degrees Celsius.

Another system that has reached production and which creates a ‘realistic snow product’ is produced by the Australian company Polar. Their system is able to create snow at up to +50 degrees Celsius and it can be used anywhere - it does not need a dome structure, although it works very well in domes.  The process uses compressed air, water and liquid nitrogen operating at -196 degrees Celsius. 'Polarsnow' can be produced outside of a dome with no refrigeration at normal temperature. The company has made snow at temporary venues worldwide ranging from the beaches of Hawaii to major snowboarding exhibitions with Ballantines at Zurich, Berlin, Prague, and Milan. 

Polar's product has also been used as special effect snow for Disney and MGM movie studios, and for functions for heads of state - it's doesn't just have to happen in domes. However it is in domes too, the first was the Skidôme Nicky Broos in Ruchpen Holland which opened in 1995 although that has subsequently changed to another system because of the relatively high costs of liquid nitrogen. Polar also supplied a first layer snow production to Snow World and others. The company states to currently negotiate contracts for new domes in Malaysia, Singapore, Manila and south Africa.

Other similar cryogenic snowmaking systems have been developed by Bucceri, Australia and HoekLoos, Netherlands (as used for past events by Unlimited Snow). HoekLoos, being a liquid gas manufacturer, succeeded to also use liquid air as a combination of liquid nitrogen and liquid oxygen with the advantage that it can be used inside snow domes without having to create a special environment inside a tent such as Polar for safety reasons.

The company Sturm in the USA produces giant ice cubes, which are then converted with high speed to snow by a separate machine.

Bucceri, or nowadays Snow Factories, also created a snowmaking system using a combination of ice cubes and dry ice for countries where liquid nitrogen may be too expensive. The other new Snow Factories any temperature snowmaking uses chilled water and air which is sprayed under pressure inside special hoses. This system has the ability to produce large quantities and may also provide a solution for lower outdoor ski slopes.

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