Photo courtesy of Grouse Mountain
This week it’s ski resorts under the microscope.
Like softgoods and skis, resorts and individuals are finding unique ways to make skiing more sustainable.
Ski resorts need skiing, it’s kind of in the name!
And for that, they need snow.
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Jeremy Jones, Founder and President of Protect Our Winters.
Jones is 100% correct in that.
Resorts are at the core of what we do and probably always will be.
There are electric snowcats in the works and there are electric snowmobiles in the works.
Well look at the electric snowmobiles and snowcats inTravel,so first, lets look at those snow-cannons.
Snowmaking for ‘free’
In recent years, snow patterns have become more and more erratic.
Sometimes theres no snow at Christmas, but fresh dumps in April.
Sometimes its just sporadic throughout the winter.
This unpredictability has increased resorts reliance on artificial snow-cannons, but theyve actually been around since the 1950s.
The process isnt great for the environment and it wastes a lot of water.
Like a refrigerator, it has a cold side and a warm side.
FIS is involved and the professor hopes that the knowledge will be spread widely.
I.e really tall features, tons and tons of flat bars.
We turned our fleet of 35 features into just over 60 features in a single summer/fall season.
It wasnt always useful but it created a kind of culture around it.
We did get about 10 extra features that first go around, mainly snowmaking tubes and lift tower tubes.
Even at one point, we got a tram hanger.
To this day, we still get asked if wed be interested in scrap metal.
But they didnt stop there.
For years, before Marcus started, all branding on features was done with vinyl die cuts.
The process was pretty wasteful," he tells me.
“In my mind, I knew this was an easy fix.
I outsourced a local sign printing shop and got them to make aluminium stencil for branding.
No more garbage, just recycled spray cans.
We used to cruise the junkyards in the lower mainland to find unique features to jib.
Every once in a while wed stumble across an old diesel tank or piece of metal stairs.
It was really hit or miss.
At one point we got an old shipping container and made it jib able.
We used it in theRedBulluncorked project a few years back.
How can we be more resourceful?
How can we be more self-sufficient?
Overall sustainability became the positive consequence of what we trying to create.
Ski Resorts, typically, buy the most cost-effective food possible.
Quite often I go to a ski resort and I think were not eating great food when were there.
Like oh whatever, were at a ski resort, well just eat a burger and fries.
Thats quite telling when you think about it.
So, next time you go skiing, maybe take an apple and a sandwich with you!
