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Operations
INTERNATIONAL SKI AREAS WARM UP inntopia full page grey.pdf 4 8/16/18 1:02 PM
TO SNOWFACTORY Lift tickets and lodging in one cart?

Climate Change Inspires Creative Snowmaking Solutions
CRM data right inside your CRS?
BY COLIN BANE

IN 2017, AFTER ONE OF THE WORST SKI SEASONS on record for Yep. Inntopia does that.
the Lecht Ski Centre in Strathdon, Scotland, General Manager TechnoAlpin
James McIntosh picked up the phone and called TechnoAlpin’s
European sales office in Bozen, Italy, to learn more about its
Snowfactory product. Touted as able to make snow in any
weather condition to supplement existing snowmaking infra-
structure, the technology was worth looking into.
Minutes into the conversation, McIntosh—determined to We grew up in the ski industry. We’ve spent fteen years
avoid a repeat performance of 2016–17—was ready to sign up building software that addresses your unique challenges,
for a trial of the Snowfactory in February 2018. The snowmak- but we’re not slowing down. We’re launching new products
ing apparatus, housed in a shipping container, went to work as and features that do a better job than ever of helping you
soon as it arrived. measure, market, and sell your travel experiences.
“It was very successful for the area that we wanted to A Snowfactory unit hard at work at The Lecht Ski Centre in Scotland.
cover, which was our small beginner area with two magic an economic and community development agency. The unit is C
carpet lifts, approximately 150 meters long by 40 meters wide powered with green energy from a wind turbine on site. M If you haven’t seen the magic of giving your central
[492 feet by 131 feet]” McIntosh said. “With the Snowfactory McIntosh says that although it’s not a replacement for nat- reservations agents access to guest marketing pro les, or
Y
we can put on a foot of snow on that whole area over about ural snow or conventional snowmaking, the Snowfactory unit how easy it is to use your clean guest data to target via
CM
seven days of production, even when it’s as warm as 25° C is keeping him in business all on its own. While it wasn’t cold Facebook ads, or the in ux of new wholesalers who can pull
MY
[77° F], so we’re no longer weather dependent like we were enough to begin conventional snowmaking until mid-January, your real-time rates from Inntopia, you’re in for a treat. And
with conventional snowmaking cannons.” the area started producing snow with the Snowfactory unit on CY we’ve got even more in store.
The Snowfactory makes ice crystals inside a shipping con- November 14, 2018, and opened on December 1. CMY
tainer unit with a refrigerant-charged cooling circuit, and uses “We’ve been open ever since, no matter how warm it is, K
dry-ice flakes instead of chemical additives. The SF100 unit because we’ve been able to keep our beginner slope and begin- We’ll see you on the lift. (But you should probably request a
is capable of producing 100 cubic meters of snow daily; the ner ski lessons running that whole time,” he said. “It’s fairly demo just in case.)
SF210 can crank out 210 cubic meters daily. The units can be simple: no snow is no money. If we’ve got snow, even if it’s just
operated 24 hours a day, seven days a week, which was a selling in our beginner area, we’ve got customers.”
point for McIntosh. He was especially eager to test the system Two other Scottish ski areas purchased Snowfactory units
in true warm-weather conditions (TechnoAlpin’s marketing for the 2018–19 season—CairnGorm Mountain and Glencoe
slogan for the Snowfactory is “365 days of snowmaking”). Mountain Resort—and Snowfactory also helped Moninec in
“We actually made snow last June for a small aerial com- the Czech Republic open in October 2018 for its earliest-ever
petition with some of the Team GB athletes,” McIntosh said. start to the ski season.
(GB is the brand name for the Olympic team from Great “We got it for a small trial last year and took it up the
Britain and Northern Ireland). “That was amazing! With the hill this year. At this point we’re depending on it for whatever
machine on for three days we were able to put down enough we’ve got,” said Bobby Monroe, Glencoe’s operations director.
snow for a run into the kicker, which had an airbag landing. The oldest ski area in Scotland, Glencoe boasts the longest
The claim was that the Snowfactory unit could do it in even and steepest slopes in the United Kingdom, but the area was
warmer weather, so we tried it and proved it out.” open for just 32 days during 2017–18 due to lack of snow.
In November 2018, following the brief trial the previous “We’re reasonably happy with the Snowfactory because
season, the Lecht Ski Centre purchased an SF100. (For infor- we’ve already outdone that this season without any more
mation on pricing, contact the company directly at info@ natural snow or any better conditions for conventional
technoalpin.com.) A portion of the funds were provided by snowmaking,” Monroe said. “We bought the smaller one.
the Scottish government’s Highlands and Islands Enterprise, We already wish we’d bought the bigger one.”

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14 | NSAA JOURNAL | SPRING 2019