The European Ski Season Starts This Week

In Scandinavia, the ski season is right around the corner—and no, we’re not stretching the meaning of that phrase. The opening dates of two Finnish ski resorts, Ruka and Levi, are literally right around the corner.

Ruka and Levi are open for skiing and riding on October 4th, 2024, only three days away.

It begs the following questions: is it dumping snow in Finland right now? How the heck is that possible when most ski resorts in the Northern Hemisphere are still months or weeks away from hosting those first chairlift rides?

The answer to those questions is pretty simple. First, no, it’s not dumping snow in Finland. Second, it’s all about preserved snow. Ruka and Levi rely on mountains of leftover snow to open in early October.

Ruka first began testing snow preservation techniques in 2016. They created several large piles of snow on Saarua’s 'Slope 13' that were then covered in white gauze and sawdust. When fall arrived, the resort used snowcats to spread these mounds of snow into skiable runs. The experiment worked out, and Ruka’s continued to preserve snow in pursuit of early October opening dates. Thanks to the program, Ruka offers skiing for over 200 days during a given season.

A similar story, which also started in 2016, unfolded at Levi. The ski resort began harvesting in the spring of 2016 to ensure enough snow to host the Levi World Cup. The techniques used paid off, and the World Cup event went off without a hitch. Since then, Levi’s honed its approach, mixing up the snow storage locations and the covers used, alongside significantly increasing the volume of snow stored.

While snow storage might seem wacky and excessive—isn’t skiing all about navigating the whims of Mother Nature?—it presents a novel way to get around the problem of climate change, which is altering the duration of ski seasons worldwide. While preserved snow can’t create powder days, it certainly beats skiing in a fridge any day of the week, and allows some ski resorts to target early opening dates more reliably.

These techniques seem to be gaining traction in North America, too. Trollhaugen, Wisconsin, employs snow preservation —albeit at a much smaller scale—to host its pre-season rail jam event, Open Haugen. Several other North American resorts, including Sunshine Village, Alberta, use fences to capture and preserve wind-blown snow. Once gathered, these flakes can be spread across the slopes, improving coverage.

Related: Nation's Largest Ski Resort Unveils New Trail Map

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