Snowboarders are no strangers to collecting snow and re-purposing it for their needs: jumps, drop-ins, landing piles for urban jibs -- even halfpipes and parks are all examples of what you can get snow to do if you're creative.
Now, urban engineers in Canada, Sweden, and Japan are catching on to that lateral thinking, collecting snow in gigantic piles to cool buildings off in the summer.
A company called Snowpower is pioneering the industrial application, notably at the Swedish Sundsvall hospital, where during summer months, snow replaces traditional building-scale air conditioning. A large snowpile is covered with an insulating layer, and the just-above-freezing meltwater at the bottom of the pile is collected and fed into a heat exchanger, cooling down the air inside the hospital. A/C technology involves greenhouse gases, ozone-depleting HCFC, and has comparably lower energy efficiencies. Making buildings greener, wintry regions like Ottawa also benefit from using snow that otherwise ties up millions of dollars in municipal budgets for removal.
In a somewhat related vein of people trying to get creative with snow, China has used cloud seeding to artificially enhance Beijing's first snowfall of the season, ending a serious period of drought. Meanwhile, in Moscow, Russia, the mayor announced plans to use cloud seeding to cause storms to drop their snow outside the city limits, at an estimated cost of six million. While the Chinese revel in the white stuff, if mayor Yury Luzhkov has his way, it seems like rail-riding Muscovites are going be vexed as snow falls short, inundating the suburbs and leaving the capital's prized jibs high and dry.
But snowboarders in Moscow are just as resourceful for creating snow, even when there is none. Check this clip from WestCom jib session, where riders gather ice from a hockey rink and turn it into snow for the contest:
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Contributors
Tracy Anderson
Drinks coffee. Writes about snowboarding. Enjoys a strong snus. Appreciates a good back lip.
Mary Fenton
Would rather be riding pow, sucking at skateboarding or thinking up new names for her deaf dog and fake band.
Colin Whyte
Below the Fold. Beyond the Pale. Between the Lines. Beneath the Rose. He's a Secret Society of One.
Jesse Huffman
Loves a cold a.m. shred and late day skate. Thinks green is the new black, but should really be the new normal.
Brad Farmer
Grows seasonal crops. Where there's powder and shred news, a Farmer will follow.
Blair Habenicht
A Northwest-grown snow slider with a tendency to blow off any obligations if the snow is falling.
Nate Deschenes
Blessed with the attention span of a gnat. Prefers a #2 Ticonderoga and Trapper Keeper to a MacBook.
Tim Brodhagen
Tim Brodhagen shreds the ice coast on the reg, speaks Portuguese and almost never eats breakfast.
Melissa Larsen
Melissa Larsen likes slashing, sleeping, and talking smack. Not necessarily in that order.
