Snow Factories

The Big Brother Snowstorm

Big Brother, Australian Series 4, May 2004.

On May 19 2004 the Big Brother housemates awoke to a backyard filled with snow! This extraordinary event had been carefully planned by Big Brother producers and was pre-empted the previous evening with storm sounds and warnings filling the Big Brother house.

The spectacular, created by Snow Factories, coincided with the Big Brother housemates being the worldwide premiere viewers of 20th Century Fox's latest blockbuster movie "The Day After Tomorrow"

"The Day After Tomorrow" is a visual and cinematic spectacular detailing the frightening consequences of global warming.

The Snow Factories team produced the required 182 cubic metres of snow for four days prior to craning it over the walls of the Big Brother house in a midnight to six am stealth mission.

The snow is produced into one cubic metre bags which were then stored and transported in forty foot refrigerated containers.

The mammoth effort was not wasted on the housemates who at the end of the reality series recalled the "snowstorm" as one of their favourite moments in the house.

Big Brother Executive Producer Jonathon Summerhayes was delighted with the final effect. Take a look at the video footage and imagine what Snow Factories could do for your event.

Success at Whistler Resort, Canada

Whistler Resort, Canada, December 2003.

The SF 100 from Snow Factories is a new product that has been developed in record time by a team of dedicated professionals in Brisbane, Australia.

After various in house and external tests had been completed, the SF team carried out a key launch in Canada in December 2003.

The objective of this launch was to showcase the SF 100 in an alpine environment, but also to assess operational options as well as a 14 day, 24 hour a day reliability period.

Intrawest Corporation, a publicly listed resort operator, invited Snow Factories to carry out the launch at Whistler Blackcomb, one of 10 resorts owned and operated by Intrawest. The interest for Intrawest management lay in the technology as an additional resource in snowmaking for their resorts.

The Snow Making team at Whistler Blackcomb were involved in the assessment of the snow quality, the grooming of the snow for slopes and assessing applications for the technology.

To avoid resource splitting, the set up of the SF unit was done autonomously from air and power supplies available on the mountain, using only mountain water supply.

From December 1, 2003, until December 14, 2003, the SF100 produced snow 24 hours per day, located at Blackcomb, part of the extensive Whistler Blackcomb Ski Resort in British Columbia, Canada.

The altitude of the location was 840 metres above sea level, along the “Lower Gear Jammer” ski run, about 500 metres above base station 2 (location reference: http://www.mywhistler.com/resources/maps ).

Although natural snow was not scarce, climate conditions influenced a limited use of traditional snow guns during the two week period the SF 100 was operating.

The SF100 ejected the produced snow onto an area up to 40 metres long and 8 metres wide, although the main covered area was about 24 by 6 metres. Remarkable was the fact, that nearly none of the snow produced was blown away, but instead remained usable for distribution in the area.

The area was cleared several times, as tuning of the SF100 provided increased snow quality. The final snow pile, about 140 m3, was then split by the snow making team at Whistler, represented by the head of snowmaking and maintenance, as well as the head of snowmaking. At a height of 1700 mm, the pile showed a consistent snow quality from top to bottom, covered by a thin protective crust.

Even though the snow makers referred to the snow quality as “much better than expected”, it wasn’t until the grooming of the snow began that the real benefits showed. Because of its high density and consistency, a superb skiing cover could be achieved using a thinner layer than with other man made snow. After spreading the snow, the grooming produced an ideal situation: A firm base of compact snow with a soft top layer, perfect to ski or board on, as well as durable enough for a whole day of busy slopes.

The SF 100 is now officially available to buy.

Polar Bear Shores

Seaworld, The Gold Coast, Australia
December 2002

The Polar Bear Shores project is one of the most widely known Snow Factories applications within the Southern Hemisphere and exemplifies the use of our technology.

Seaworld contacted our company via a simple website enquiry in July 2002 in order to gain more information about our technology. Seaworld’s hope was to include snow within the Polar Bear exhibit for approximately one month, not only as its primary summer attraction but as an extension of its current enrichment program.

Negotiations and requirement discussions were conducted between the CEO of Warner Theme Parks, John Menzies; Seaworld curator Trevor Long, and Snow Factories product inventor and Technical consultant, Alf Bucceri.

A demonstration of two man made snow machinery options was provided (the CR600L and the SF100) to determine which product was most appropriate for use in this application. The cryogenic machine was selected based on its texture and quality within the exhibit.

On August 27 2002 approximately 100 cubic metres of snow was made in the Brisbane warehouse, stored in numerous 229 Litre wheely bins and transported approximately 65 kilometres to the Gold Coast.

This trial was conducted within the Polar Bear exhibit in order to determine the Bears reaction to the snow; the logistics of the snow transportation;and to gain promotional material and imagery for the upcoming event.

The trial went extremely well from Seaworld’s point of view, and for Snow Factories provided a hands-on “warm up” from which minor logistical adjustments were made.

On December 20 2002 (the Polar Cubs second birthday) the Polar Bear Shores Snow attraction was launched to the media with great success.

Images of the Polar cubs frolicking in their winter wonderland were seen on every major news channel within Queensland, and several across Australia and the Southern Hemisphere.

For thirty three days from December 26 2002, eighty to one hundred cubic metres of man made snow was produced on site at Seaworld and distributed across the exhibit by the Snow Factories team.

The quality of the snow exceeded all expectations and melt rates were minimal despite the Queensland summer heat (daily temperatures on average 29 degrees celcius) and humidity.

Both Seaworld and Snow Factories were delighted at the success of the project and discussions are under way for another project in the future!