Why waste time dreaming of a White Christmas when you can simply go out and buy one?
That is exactly what Thredbo, a world class ski resort in Australia, has recently done and they now boast the distinct honor of having the one of the largest artificial snow making systems in the entire Southern Hemisphere.
Currently, their automated snow guns cover over 70 hectares of trails with snow. Many of the popuar Thredbo trails, including True Blue, Little Beauty and Friday Flat, benefit from this new technology.
Just how much is 70 hectares?
Well, let’s break it down. With their current upgrades, Thredbo will be able to create over 600, 000 cubic meters of snow. This is enough to bury more than fifty football fields in more than a meter of snow; enough snow to cancel any game.
This is more than three times the amount of snow that could be created in pre-automated days. Automation represents the most significant advancement made in snowmaking since 1988.
Thredbo also purchased a new addition to their army of snow groomers. This machine, the Kassbohrer 400 winch cat, a monster of modern science, with features such as a touch screen and joytick controls which make it handle more like a video game than the beast that it is. It also has some upgrades to help it minimize its effect on the environment by using the latest in emmission control.
All of these factors put together make the Thredbo snow making system a world class spectacle of man’s triumph over nature and weather.
You would think that it must be expensive to play god like this. Well, you would be right.Over the past four years, Thredbo has spent eight million dollars on automating their snow making system. The upgrades they invested on this year total to just over two million dollars.
Fortunately, this is nothing compared to the continued profits and great reputation that Thredbo will receive as a result of their recent investment.