The alpine ski industry is particularly vulnerable to climate change. To satisfy the desires of sliding sports enthusiasts, Quebec tourist resorts devoted a record share of their investments last year to snowmaking, which uses large quantities of water and energy.
Martin Hardy is happy behind the wheel of his snow groomer. “I’m the one who has the nicest office in the company,” laughs the assistant director of operations at Sommet Saint-Sauveur.
Under the powerful jet of a pole, this longtime employee makes the imposing vehicle climb on the top of a white and dense mound. The objective: to distribute the pile of snow, using its two huge shovels, on the still greenish track which stands in front of it. All along the slope stand several similar heaps.
“To push all that, it will take about ten hours,” says Mr. Hardy, who grew up on the ski hills of the Laurentians.
It’s Wednesday. Twelve of the 32 runs, all white, have already been skied down. Yet there was still almost no trace of snowflakes in the surrounding landscape. What allows the station to be open is more than 400 poles and snow cannons distributed all over the mountain, which operate approximately 1000 hours each winter.
“They announce snow this weekend, we are happy, commented Christian Dufour, marketing director for Les Sommets, which includes several mountains, including Saint-Sauveur. But what we need above all is cold, so that we can do it. Natural snow will help, but it will never cover what we need. »
Existing technology can produce snow as soon as it is -2 degrees Celsius or lower. For Mont Saint-Sauveur and the Avila side, approximately 600 million liters of water are pumped annually from a small lake and the Rivière du Nord. The liquid is routed to each barrel and perch through a network of pipes. The other snow ingredient, compressed air, is routed in a parallel network.
“It’s infrastructure like a city, except that instead of being an aqueduct and sewer network, we have kilometers of water and compressed air pipelines,” said Mr. Hardy in the center control, pointing to a map representing the mountain.
Resort officials line the mount as much as possible early in the season, in order to launch it early and stretch it into spring. “Our winters are unpredictable. If it’s hot in February, I won’t be able to make snow. So we make a good thickness and it lasts until May, ”says Mr. Dufour.
Multi-Million Snow
Les Sommets spends between 1 and 4 million dollars each year to renew their infrastructures and equipment related to mechanical snowmaking, in order to adopt cutting-edge technologies. This constitutes up to half of their investment budget. And they are not alone. According to a study carried out on behalf of the Association des stations de ski du Québec (ASSQ) with 15 of their 74 members, 23% of private investments by resorts were devoted to these systems last year. This is the highest proportion ever observed by the President and CEO of the ASSQ, Yves Juneau.
The need behind these changes is adaptation to climate change. Anticipating having to produce more snow in the future, the Massif de Charlevoix added a second water source last year. The ski resort had seven kilometers of pipes built to draw water from the Lombrette River, in addition to Lake Tourville. This project cost seven million dollars, indicates the vice-president of operations, Vincent Dufresne. The Charlevoix station also acquired 108 additional poles and automated them.
The resorts have to deal with greater temperature fluctuations and a reduction in periods cold enough to carry out snowmaking. This is one of the reasons why they are turning to systems that allow the guns to start and stop much faster, and to produce a higher volume more quickly.
For example, when passing the Homework at Mont Saint-Sauveur, the temperature exceeded -2 degrees at the end of the morning, forcing the team to interrupt snow production.
“It’s not like a few years ago, when you could drive [les canons] in December, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week”, emphasizes Martin Hardy. Nowadays, favorable windows are sometimes only for a few hours at night.
However, traditional systems require up to six hours of preparation and a lot of personnel to start and stop the machinery, while those that are automated reduce this time to about fifteen minutes, thanks to the click of a mouse.
Environmental concerns
Moreover, the technologies developed in recent years by suppliers rely on a reduction in the quantities of water and energy required to make snow. But according to the ASSQ, 45% of the snowmaking equipment inventory of the resorts needs to be replaced, from pumps to guns to pipes. While snowmaking accounts for around 40% of resort electricity bills, the adoption of these technologies would have the potential to reduce their energy consumption by 30%, the association assesses.
While the provincial government wants a societal shift towards energy sobriety and has announced its desire to protect the province’s freshwater resources, Yves Juneau believes that the latter should more actively support the small revolution in the stations of ski.
“With what the stations generate as a profit and the levels of investment of which they are capable, it will take too long,” believes Mr. Juneau.
The Eau Secours organization, for its part, believes that water withdrawals from ski resorts have a potential impact on biodiversity and the water reserves of municipalities, which are sometimes reduced in several regions of Quebec. When the manufactured snow melts, the water does not necessarily return to its original source, also believes the general manager, Rébecca Pétrin, referring to changes to the hydrographic network. She calls for these issues to be documented and studied locally and regionally.
For environmental reasons, could the resorts do without this mechanical snowmaking? This would not be economically viable for the vast majority of them, according to Yves Juneau, since the ski season could be reduced to a month or two. “Ski lifts cost millions. It takes income to pay for that, ”he says.
The administration of the Summits notes that the skiing period is likely to decrease over the years, despite the adoption of advanced technologies. It therefore protects itself by developing four-season activities: water park in the summer, amusement park and mountain biking in the fall, campsites, shops.
“This sport, even if it will go through changes, will continue to exist, says Christian Dufour, watching dozens of amateurs complete their descent. People want to slide on the snow, it’s something magical. We will continue to fight to offer good conditions. »