The skiers are not interested in the male that turns down in Kühtai over the Plateau. You struggle up the steep, red slope, which would have elsewhere, get to certainly be a black tablet. Finally, no one can guess what Michael Rothleitner, the looks from the bird perspective, in fact, like a Playmobil figure, drives. He has a Vision that could change the skiing.
Rothleitner, for many years chief of the Mayrhofner Bergbahnen im Zillertal, conducts research on the snowmaking of the future. He is supposed to consume less water and electricity, and especially the winter athletes more pleasure. The Problem is with the snow from the cannon: He comes round and spherical, therefore, as small ice grains. When Riding it feels as if the skis were scraping on Styrofoam. In addition, a large arise on artificial snow often flat sheets of ice. Ambitious winter sports enthusiasts, and racers get on with it, but not the mass of the skiers.
Perfect
This is confirmed also in Kühtai. Many skiers swear, if you don’t fall on the steep slope to Slide because the edges keep in the icy snow. Real snow is fluffy. Under the microscope it revealed a hexagonal, a fine network structure. “Nature created the beautiful snow crystals.” Rothleitner know that he can not do the copying on a large scale. “Our goal is that when the Snow is not as much water evaporates.”
Kühtai, the small Tyrolean village to the East of the ötz Valley, offers the perfect conditions to start a snow-revolution. The scientists with whom Rothleitner works together, for the benefit of both the tourists of the short arrival from Innsbruck leads through the sellrain valley. Kühtai and its base stations are located at 2000 meters above sea level. This guarantees a five-month Winter, with many hours of sunshine. This is even evidenced historically. Because the Name of Kühtai is not for the Alpkühe. The Locals derive it from the Rhaeto-romance, and translate the “Kühtai” in “sun valley”. The lifts stretch like a spider web around the place. North-facing slopes on the one hand, Südabfahrten on the other side. Kühtai itself is made up of Hotels, Restaurants, and Clubs. There is a road, no school, a Church, not a nursery school.
The ski resort has retained a peculiar charm. Top drivers are not enough, the eleven ski lifts and trams, which were 40 kilometres of downhill runs, maybe, but families will enjoy a relaxing holiday days. Rest and short distances to delight even the scientists who conduct research together with Michael Roth Leitner. It needs a long breath, as it relates to basic research, not to quick success.
snowmaking expert Michael Rothleitner. Photo: PD
A Problem solved, new questions often follow: In what way is the production of artificial snow can be made more efficient? To rothleitner have to measure how much snow produced by a snow cannon, if the water be changed in amount or pressure. Currently, he is trying to take a photograph of the produced quantity of snow with a digital camera and measured by Computer. The amount itself says nothing about the moisture content of the snow, the man, to save water and energy, wants to reduce. At the same time the snow should be soft. The scientists have tried it with probes, but no usable data.
must admit rothleitner, who once studied chemistry, that is, in many areas, still at the beginning. Also the water used plays a role: It contains dust grains, minerals, salts, or fungal spores, which can change the freezing point. It is already clear that there can be no single snow-making system, but a mobile laboratory. So Roth wants to travel-leitner in the individual ski resorts to the production set individually.
the snow out of the cannon is expensive: to turn a hectare of Green in skitaugliches White, are up to 20’000 kilowatt hours of electricity needed. Ultimately, the long-term securing of winter sports depends on the theme of snow . Accordingly, the project is placed under the roof of the snow centre in Tirol. The policy gave the go-ahead. In the boat research institutions, manufacturers of snow-making facilities, mountain Railways and tourism regions. “We work well together”, emphasizes Willi Mareiler, a politician and a walking historical encyclopedia from Kühtai.
snow Arena in Lüsens
The ski resort of Innsbruck has also qualified as a research location, because there was already a snowmaking project. To be sure, is only a short drive to the sellrain valley is necessary that both form an exact counter-proposal to Kühtai, although a tourist unit. In advertising for the valley-country skiing trails meander length along the roads, ski tourists trudging hanging over the steep, snow-Shoe hikers look with amazement on the ice climbers. There is a puny ski lift, for nobody is interested in. The eyes are on the new snow Arena in Lüsens. There is powder snow that has been artificially generated. Behind it, a Tyrolean invention is also: A kind of artificial cloud was created from the snow trickles down, as the White would fall from the sky. In the Arena, a small white playing field is created, and the young people with futuristic snow companions race over hills and obstacles. Pashacasino The wonder of the cloud should have been the big gambles in terms of snowmaking. However, the quantities of the production, calculated so far could produce, so low that there is nowhere. Now all hopes on Michael Rothleitner rest.
The trip was unterstütztvon Tirol Werbung and Innsbruck Tourismus. (editor-in-Tamedia)
Created: 06.12.2018, 18:30 clock
