Beijing - 1st Olympics 100% man made snow

[deadheadskier]

Back to the 100% man made snow thing. This is the first? I find they surprising.

Even back when SLC had it. Every trail that had a ski or board event on had snowmaking and it was used. Also the x country area at solider hollow had man made. So does that make that all man made? No no because they had natural snowfall on top of the 100% man made?

That's what the article claims. ALL of the skiing competition is being held on 100% man made snow. Place only averages a wife's dream worth of natural in a good year. It's just cold as shit apparently and somehow has massive amounts of water available for snowmaking even though it's a desert.

 

[BenedictGomez]

It's just cold as shit apparently and somehow has massive amounts of water available for snowmaking even though it's a desert.

Is that true; I was wondering about that? I was wondering if there's some odd geological thing going on underground, or if they're just trucking in millions of gallons of h2o at the cost of letting thousands of peasants starve.

 

[deadheadskier]

Is that true; I was wondering about that? I was wondering if there's some odd geological thing going on underground, or if they're just trucking in millions of gallons of h2o at the cost of letting thousands of peasants starve.

I don't know that to be true. I question if it's your last point too, but they obviously cranked out an insane amount of snow.

The whole thing doesn't add up.

 

[IceEidolon]

It's easier to move electricity long distances than an estimated 500m gallons of water.

 

[JimG.]

lol not very climate friendly.

I've lost a lot of interest in the Olympics. Frankly the only events I really watch anymore are bobsled, luge, and skeleton.

Those sliders are nuts. And it's a timed event...no judges. The winner is the winner.

 

[KustyTheKlown]

Watching the girls snowboarding and there seems to be a lot of snow in the surrounding area. Doesn’t look entirely man made. Are we only talking skiing? The snowboard park looked to be in a ski area

 

[abc]

That's what the article claims. ALL of the skiing competition is being held on 100% man made snow. Place only averages a wife's dream worth of natural in a good year. It's just cold as shit apparently and somehow has massive amounts of water available for snowmaking even though it's a desert.

What about Sochi and Whistler?

They trucked in the snow, albeit natural ones, from somewhere else! Is that "better"?

 

[BushMogulMaster]

49 million is a made up number or only part of their area. They are way Fucking higher.

A recent WSJ story mentioned 2MM cubic meters of water, which is about 528MM gallons. That at least makes a bit more sense, as it should equal somewhere around 2,500 acre feet of snow depending on temps.

 

[BenedictGomez]

Watching the girls snowboarding and there seems to be a lot of snow in the surrounding area. Doesn’t look entirely man made. Are we only talking skiing? The snowboard park looked to be in a ski area

Supposedly it's entirely madmade. I believe it too, because anything outside the camera's "intended" view is brown.

 

[BenedictGomez]

lol not very climate friendly.

I've lost a lot of interest in the Olympics. Frankly the only events I really watch anymore are bobsled, luge, and skeleton.

Those sliders are nuts. And it's a timed event...no judges. The winner is the winner.

Dont forget ice hockey, cross country, and biathlon. Those too are non-BS sports in addition to alpine.

 

[BenedictGomez]

Is that "better"?

Almost certainly (assuming you care about such things).

 

[machski]

What about Sochi and Whistler?

They trucked in the snow, albeit natural ones, from somewhere else! Is that "better"?

Didn't think they trucked snow to Whistler for the Vancouver games, just Cypress where the tech and freestyle events were. Whistler had natural for the games and while the very bottom was thin natural, they were able to lay down machine made to fill in. Cypress lost almost all of their snow. They actually helicoptered snow in as it was too warm to make enough to recover in time.

Sochi had snow as I recall, and they had stacked and tarped snow from the previous season to have snow to start working with for the games year. What is worse with Sochi is that half the lifts they put in and terrain, got ripped out post games. It's a shadow of what they built for the Olympics now.

 

[abc]

Almost certainly (assuming you care about such things).

(yes, assuming one cares about such things)

what's so bad about making snow? (over helicoptering snow from another mountain)

 

[fbrissette]

Is that true; I was wondering about that? I was wondering if there's some odd geological thing going on underground, or if they're just trucking in millions of gallons of h2o at the cost of letting thousands of peasants starve.

Despite all of the misinformation, my understanding is that most fo the water comes from a surface reservoir, roughly 100 miles away.

 

[IceEidolon]

If they've got cold weather and snowmaking, drift'll cover everything downwind with at least a little dust. If it hasn't melted much since their last snowmaking efforts, that could explain the ambiance snow.

 

[drjeff]

Definitely some hard, aggressive snow on the women's GS hill.

Crazy to see Shiffrin boot out and ski out just a couple of gates into her run

 

[deadheadskier]

Definitely some hard, aggressive snow on the women's GS hill.

Crazy to see Shiffrin boot out and ski out just a couple of gates into her run

Did I hear the broadcast correctly in that the only discipline that has been permitted practice runs because of Covid restrictions has been men's downhill?

Everyone else is skiing blind basically

 

[kendo]

Watching the girls snowboarding and there seems to be a lot of snow in the surrounding area. Doesn’t look entirely man made. Are we only talking skiing? The snowboard park looked to be in a ski area

All man made snow on the event hills and the surrounding area. Massive pipelines and reservoirs bring water into the region for 24/7 snowmaking production to put an Alpine veneer on a barren landscape.

Downhill course chiseled out of cliffs with explosives ... sounds like Hunter.

10's of thousands of trees watered by an elaborate irrigation system, recently planted to present a forested landscape.

24000 acres of barren wasteland developed into ski areas.

Money buys the games and creates the backdrop...

China’s Games: How Xi Jinping Is Staging the Olympics on His Terms (Published 2022)

From Beijing’s unexpected bid through the coronavirus pandemic, China has managed to fulfill its promises and cow its critics.

www.nytimes.com

 

[deadheadskier]

All man made snow on the event hills and the surrounding area. Massive pipelines and reservoirs bring water into the region for 24/7 snowmaking production to put an Alpine veneer on a barren landscape.

Downhill course chiseled out of cliffs with explosives ... sounds like Hunter.

10's of thousands of trees watered by an elaborate irrigation system, recently planted to present a forested landscape.

24000 acres of barren wasteland developed into ski areas.

Money buys the games and creates the backdrop...

China’s Games: How Xi Jinping Is Staging the Olympics on His Terms (Published 2022)

From Beijing’s unexpected bid through the coronavirus pandemic, China has managed to fulfill its promises and cow its critics.

www.nytimes.com

Gross

 

[drjeff]

Did I hear the broadcast correctly in that the only discipline that has been permitted practice runs because of Covid restrictions has been men's downhill?

Everyone else is skiing blind basically

Kind of.

Normal pre race training runs for the DH.

Plenty of pics on social media of the non DH'ers training on the race venues the last few days.

The Covid angle was that the planned WC events for the venue last year were canceled, so this is the first time they've had a race on that hill and basically any of the non Chinese racers have skied it