Until then: waiting for winter
Until it really snows, artificial snow saves the firmly planned ski resort openings and the early season turns of the motivated. Artificial snow - or "technical snow" if you want to be precise - is present in almost all Alpine ski resorts throughout the season. If there is real snow next to and above it, it is just not as noticeable as a white stripe in brownish meadows. A few years ago, a study appeared in the specialist journal "Tourism Economics", which defined what an optimal ski day (OSD) looks like in order to then consider when such days occur and how this might affect the behavior of paying guests. According to the authors, it doesn't matter whether there is artificial snow or real snow on the slopes for an optimal ski day. The main thing is that it is white next to it, because the paying guests want the winter look! Technical snow has certain advantages when it comes to grooming uniform slopes anyway, because it has more contact points, is harder and can be easily compressed. A 30 cm thick artificial snow slope withstands the early season rush much better than 30 cm of natural snow, but is of course more expensive to produce initially... An OSD also needs mild temperatures, sunshine, lots of open lifts and preferably a weekend. The WeatherBlog has a different opinion on the subject of OSD - the scientific consensus may not yet have been reached here.
Anyone who has been skiing in the last few days has had a good chance of getting a load or two of snow cannon snow in their face, because it is still too scarce away from the ski resorts and all the snowmaking systems are running in the ski resorts in order to provide the reliable 30 cm of artificial snow as comprehensively as possible. The WeatherBlog doesn't think it's quite an ideal day's skiing yet, but has to admit that the first very mediocre tours on the edge of the slopes next to the roaring cannons and the equally mediocre descents over artificial snow hills somehow contribute to the anticipation of winter. Not because the snow cannons and artificial snow are particularly attractive, but because we know that it can be different and, with a bit of luck, soon will be, because it's finally cold outside again and just uncomfortable enough to appreciate the coziness inside, and because mediocre sliding around is still better than walking back down again.
So let's hope for the lows at the weekend and that the really perfect skiing days gradually get closer!
