With a ski industry worth hundreds of millions of dollars to the Australian economy, Leigh Kennedy of Tatra Inn, on Mt Buffalo, can’t understand the laissez-faire attitude of the resorts.
“Each June they sit down and cross their fingers, hoping there will be enough snow to permit viable operation,” he said.
Once that was all they could do, but a new venture by an Australian company could change the prospects for snow.
As director of Snow Engineering Australia, Mr Kennedy is hoping to set up snow-making operations at Australian resorts.
He is conducting a pilot study on Mt Buffalo this season and hopes to be able to convince other resorts of the benefits of using machine-made snow.
“Machine-made snow is basically the same type as natural snow, but it is denser, therefore lasts longer on the ground and packs better,” he said.
The snow is made from water and compressed air pumped at high pressure to a ‘snow gun’ where the two ingredients mix.
The air atomises the water and when the mix hits the atmosphere under pressure (100 psi) it crystalizes into snowflakes.
Ideal temperatures for making snow are freezing or below and the colder the temperature, the more snow that can be produced.
Some machine-made snow has been used on resorts in Australia in the past few years, but Mr Kennedy said these were not serious operations.
The disastrous snow season last year had prompted the ski industry to look into ways of improving their viability.
A guarantee of snow, especially at the start of the season, would be a great advantage, he said.
A seminar held at Tatra Inn on Mt Buffalo on Wednesday found huge interest in the system, with more than 70 representatives from resorts in NSW, Victoria, Tasmania and New Zealand attending.
All Australian ski fields have been historically disadvantaged by a very short season, Mr Kennedy said.
Too often the resorts have had to wait until July before the season can properly commence.
The aim of snow-making is not only to improve the quantity of snow at resorts, but also the quality, he said.
Mt Buffalo, at 1524 m is a low-altitude resort and the ski area has operated for an average of only 74 days per season for the past seven years.
In a ‘good’ season Mt Buffalo ski areas operate for up to 30 per cent more days than the average, creating an increased revenue of about $75,000 to the lift companies, $336,000 to the accommodation industry as well as increased business for food, petrol, ski hire and bus hire, Mr Kennedy said.
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