◎ Science and Technology Daily reporter He Liang
"The first time I came here [in Yanqing] was in 2014, when there was almost nothing here, but now I look down from the mountain every day and I can see the snow and all kinds of beauty." At a media briefing on Feb. 5, Bernhard Russi, chairman of the Alpine SkiIng Committee of the International Snow Federation and designing alpine skiing tracks for the ninth consecutive Winter Olympics, said so.
Commenting on the snow quality of the alpine ski track at the Beijing Winter Olympics, Bernhard Russi said, "Although I am a track designer, not an expert in snowmaking, I can now say that the snow conditions on the (alpine skiing) track are perfect, and there is no way to get better!" ”
On February 1, a trial skater tries skating at the National Alpine Ski Center circuit. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Chen Bin
Where did the acclaimed ski tracks come from? Can I use natural snowfall directly? The answer is that natural snowfall is only the foundation, artificial snowmaking is the key.
Because different snow racing events have different requirements for snow quality, even if there is abundant natural snowfall, it needs to be artificially recreated, so artificial snowmaking has become the key to creating high-quality tracks on snow. Moreover, artificial snowmaking technology has been developed for decades, and artificial snowmaking technology has been applied in the 1980s, including the Turin Winter Olympics, vancouver winter olympics, sochi winter olympics and Pyeongchang winter olympics have made a lot of artificial snowmaking.
Infographic: National Alpine Ski Center. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Zhang Chenlin
The Beijing Winter Olympics are no exception, and artificial snow is used in the Yanqing, Zhangjiakou and Shougang ski jumps. "It's just that we put more emphasis on 'recycling' in terms of the source of snow." Wei Qinghua, head of the Chinese side of the snowmaking team at the Beijing Winter Olympics and mountain operation manager of the ancient poplar tree stadium in Zhangjiakou Competition Area, said.
Wei Qinghua told the Science and Technology Daily reporter that artificial snowmaking is a physical process of changing from water to snow, after the snow melts in the snow field, the melting snow water is accumulated through the water storage equipment, and the snow can be re-made after sedimentation and filtration. Moreover, since no other additives are added to the snowmaking process, the collected ablation snow water can also be used for landscape greening and agricultural irrigation to achieve the effect of recycling.
There is a more direct way to create as many high-quality slopes as possible with as little water as possible in the snow field - to store snow in winter, to survive the high temperature in the summer, and then use it in the next winter.
Bernhard Russi said at the press conference that he did not understand the situation in China, but in recent years in Europe, the snow will be piled together as much as possible in the spring, and then covered and stored with something, "so that we can keep 30% to 50% of the snow from the previous snow season (and use it again in winter)." Bernhard Russi said.
In fact, with the support of the national key research and development plan "Science and Technology Winter Olympics" special "research and application demonstration of key technologies for snow protection for events", China's scientific research team has also completed the research and development of snow storage technology and equipment. In 2017, Wang Feiteng's team from the Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources of the Chinese Academy of Sciences participated in the snow storage test carried out by the Beijing Winter Olympic Organizing Committee at the Shijinglong Ski Resort in Yanqing, and after the "test" of the whole summer, about 60% of the snow was stored.
In November 2021, Zhangjiakou Division ushered in 30 cm of snowfall, using this snowfall, Zhangjiakou Division started snowmaking work, using natural snow as a base, storing a large amount of natural snow and then artificial snowmaking to achieve efficient use of snow resources.
Source: Science and Technology Daily
Editor: Zhang Shuang
Review: Julie
Final Judgement: Wang Yu