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La Molina launches a 'snow thrower' that measures the amount of snow

Published: Feb 14, 2020

Content

1 The resort has 521 snow cannons and 83 temperature probes

With this system, snow plow machines move snow from one area to another, depending on the parameterized thickness, and at the same time the production of snow in the area is increased or decreased according to the needs. This system, which was implemented last season in La Molina , was only used in the Pyrenees on the slopes of Baqueira Beret .

La Molina uses a system in one of its snow-throwing machines that allows the tracks to be parameterized so that when they pass over a path, the snow thicknesses are measured. The president of FGC, Ricard Font, explained last week in a meeting with the press of the sector, that this allows us to know where to focus the snow on the cannons to " not produce more than the account ". Before the arrival of the new system, production was done with much less precision. In the Pyrenees there are only two resorts that use it, Baqueira Beret , in the Vall d'Aran, and now La Molina.

The director of La Molina , Xavier Perpinyà, who accompanied Font in the meeting with the press, added to Font's explanations that this system known as Snowsat works with a sonar that detects the bottom of the snow cover and determines How tall is the machine.

The accuracy is almost total, with only a margin of error of one centimeter. The thicknesses are reflected in a specific track map , it is shared with the rest of the ratracs and in this way the rest of the drivers of each of the machines already know automatically the thickness that is in different tracks and sectors of the resort. All this helps in the work of transporting snow from one area or track to another.

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The resort has 521 snow cannons and 83 temperature probes

The two managers of FGC and La Molina pointed out that the future at the resort involves producing twice as much snow and doing it with cannons that produce more with less energy expenditure and using less water. In short: be more efficient and save on expenses.

The director of La Molina also explained that each snowplow driver has his own part of work and area to step on with a determined and optimized access , in order to avoid duplication when stepping on tracks. With this system, according to Xavier Perpinyà, they have achieved savings of up to 20,000 euros per year in fuel on certain long tracks of the resort such as the Volta a la Montanya Sagrada.

It is also planned that a hybrid machine will be added to the La Molina fleet this week to gradually eliminate diesel . According to Ricard Font, it has a thermal engine that transforms with electricity to reduce the daily consumption of diesel. This new machine will also feature the Snowsat system .