Where to Ski And Snowboard - Levi stockpiles snow for next ski season

Levi stockpiles snow for next ski season

18th April 2020, by Abi Butcher

The Finnish ski resort Levi is preserving snow ready for an early start to next season. Pic: facebook.com/levilapland

A ski resort in Finland is preserving snow for the 2020-21 winter season after being forced to close early due to the coronavirus outbreak.

Staff at Levi, a ski resort in Finnish Lapland north of the Arctic Circle, are collecting around 150,000m2 of snow from the resorts slopes into large piles which they will cover and preserve using new materials. The “Finnfoam isolation material” is vapour-resistant with three layers of “geofabric” that will protect the snow from sunlight, wind and rain which resort directors hope will allow Levi to open much earlier next season.

Usually, the slopes are skied until May when all the snow has melted, but by preserving the current snow for a record-breaking early start to next season, Levi hopes it can recover some of the losses suffered by the resort and every business associated with it.

“Snow depots are staying under the covers until it is time to spread out snow back to the slopes for the new season-opening,” says Marko Mustonen, commercial director with Levi Ski Resort. He was speaking to the Barents Observer, an online newspaper covering the Barents Region and the Arctic.

“Finnfoam isolation material, which is a high vapor resistant material. It should minimize evaporation of snow to 5-10%,” Mustonen explained.

The Austrian ski resort of Kitzbühel uses similar “snow farming” techniques that allow it to open very early every season despite not having a glacier in its ski area. For more details, read the feature by Dave Watts here.