 Poster: A snowHead
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well...... anyone who has spent any time in one of teh fridges in the UK and got bored after a few runs should try this place....Snow World [ www.snowworld.com ] in Landgraaf in Holland, the centre has 2 nursery slopes, a main slope, 520m long!!!!! a fun park, and a FIS training slope where they inject the snow to firm it up for training from july til sept, the main slopes are fed by a choice of 2 poma lifts and a chairlift
the video attached shows part of the main slope you cna see the top in some of the footage and the point where i was shooting from was about 2/3 of the way down this is on the main slope, the FIS slope and the chair were closed for summer maintenance.... prices in the summer are silly cheap about 39€ for an 8 hour pass, and they have a hotel on site if you want to stay
[img]https://snowheads.com/the_zone/showphoto.php/data/500/thumbs/Untitled.wmv[/img]
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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CEM, wasn't there a thread about this some time ago and a bash was mooted?
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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holidayloverxx, not sure, but it would be a good weekend away
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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It illustrates how badly short changed we are over here, both in terms of price and facilities!
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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roga, they are planning to open 6 more centres [they already have 4] in the next 3 years and the guy i spoke to said they were looking at UK locations for one of them....the owner is a mad keen skier and the whole thing is geared towards skiing, they offer race training facilities and groups can book a training lane at no charge if there is a slot available, the group i was with took out own gates buut they will rent them to groups who don't have any. completely different attitude to the centres in this country, the staff were all polite, new their product and were interested in finding out more about the group
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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| CEM wrote: |
| roga, they are planning to open 6 more centres [they already have 4] in the next 3 years and the guy i spoke to said they were looking at UK locations for one of them....the owner is a mad keen skier and the whole thing is geared towards skiing, they offer race training facilities and groups can book a training lane at no charge if there is a slot available, the group i was with took out own gates buut they will rent them to groups who don't have any. completely different attitude to the centres in this country, the staff were all polite, new their product and were interested in finding out more about the group |
Get back in touch with him and tell him he is bound to find a suitable location around SW London. Sandown Park, for example, would offer good transport links and be within a short commute of London and much of the south east. And it would be 15 minutes from me, but I doubt that would carry much weight with him 
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CEM, Nice edit on 31 seconds to erase the head butt of the side wall 
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From my neck of SE England that's only a tiny bit further than driving to Tamworth!
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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Frosty the Snowman, she didn't hit the wall....she missed it by about 3"....the reason you see the snow is because i put the camera down to make sure she was all right.... there was one ride the wall moment but the camera was away by then 
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paulio, 3 hours from calais...just a really boring road
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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| paulio wrote: |
| From my neck of SE England that's only a tiny bit further than driving to Tamworth! |
Amneville is a similar distance too.
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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CEM, yep, great place, hope to be going again soon myself
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You know it makes sense.
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CEM, Looks great, but the Hendrick's is more expensive than Sainsbury's
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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Could do both in a weekend and get about the same quantity of pisted terrain as at a Scottish resort, and a better standard of spoken English.
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Poster: A snowHead
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| CEM wrote: |
| main slope, 520m long!!!!! |
Longer than the planned main slope for "Snoasis" (415m).
I think Bottrop (Germany) is the world's longest. (640m)
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Good, cus i'm gonna spend a WEEK there 
First (split out) part very impressively called "National Ski Instructor" of my Anwärter course.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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| Martin Bell wrote: |
| CEM wrote: |
| main slope, 520m long!!!!! |
Longer than the planned main slope for "Snoasis" (415m).
I think Bottrop (Germany) is the world's longest. (640m) |
From the looks of it (haven visited Landgraaf before) Bottrop is less exciting.... Only 1 slope, which is light green for a fair bit...
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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There's a luxury overnight boat from Hull to Rotterdam - so big and stable even I managed to sleep on it and not feel 
I think it's supposed to be the largest car ferry in current use.
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| Martin Bell wrote: |
| CEM wrote: |
| main slope, 520m long!!!!! |
Longer than the planned main slope for "Snoasis" (415m).
I think Bottrop (Germany) is the world's longest. (640m) |
Bottrop has a revamped website
http://www.alpincenter.com/index.php?id=1&L=2
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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Butterfly,
They will be 2 that sort of size doing the Dover Calais route by 2010.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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How do they do the snow in these places- is it like the snowcannons on the mountains - in our Swiss resort where they had a brand new system installed this year it was explained that they wait for the correct temperature and humidity and then spray water from the overhead booms where it turns into snow on contact with the air - I thought this was a revelation - I'd never understood how it was done until it was explained to me. Do they do something similar in the 'fridges'?
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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Megamum,
pretty much...it is why they call them a fridge..you need cold temps to make and keep the snow.
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JT, yeah, I'd gathered the 'fridge' bit thanks!  What I hadn't appreciated until it was mentioned was how critical the humidity was to the process - of course from a chemistry perspective it all makes sense - phase diagrams and all that- I just hadn't thought about it until until it was explained.
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You know it makes sense.
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Megamum,
ok...next time you ask a question, I'll remember that
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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JT, Sorry, no offence intended - but I had twigged why they were called fridges It was the process of how the snow was produced that had rather baffled me until the chap in charge of the mountain in Switzerland explained his snow system to me with great pride - I think he just wanted to explain it to someone, I hadn't actually asked, but it filled in the journey on the chair lift as we went over the water booms. For some reason I wasn't expecting it to start with water being sprayed and for the actual process of making the snow to still be dependant on on the air conditions that it would take to make snow anyway. I assumed that the snow could be made in any coldish conditions and that whether it then lasted then depended on whether conditions were sub-zero, i.e. that snow/ice particles were actually sprayed out as ice particles -frozen in the making apparatus, rather than as water and that it required the air to do the rest. It actually means that artificial snow cannot be made all the time, even if the temps are sub-zero, the air conditions actually had to be correct as well. So even an artificial snow system in a resort doesn't necessarily guarantee snow. Also, I know that they can add a nutrient chemical to the water so it freezes earlier and that this can cause pollution through the addition of nutrients to the pastures in the spring melt. Apparently the farmers like this - better grass, but it could be causing longer term problems in the groundwater.
I just wondered if the snow domes had a similar system or if they used some different method to get their snow - if so then they must have be constantly monitoring the humidity as well as the temperature in these places.
I just find it all rather interesting .
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Poster: A snowHead
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Landgraaf has a couple of pretty normal looking Fan-snowguns in the hall... and judging the snow hanging from support beams i'm quiet sure they simply use them as a normal alpine resort would use them.
Landgraaf has full control of the air conditions inside, so its probably very easy...
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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I stuck my head in one of those snow cannons once, it makes a weird throbbing noise in there, froze my face solid though and my goggle lense didnt de ice for hours 
I intend to hit up teh landgraaf in the autumn, the park looks fun. Anyone know if the rental gear is decent or on a par with most dutch equipment I see in the winter.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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stab, Rental gear is rubbish. Some semi decent skis, but i haven't seen anything worth your time regarding the boards.
The Park does look pretty decent, for a fridge....
Nothing near to white-elements @First obviously, but a bunch of jumps, slides and all.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Now by the sounds of it there could be a couple of different systems - stab, you talk about snow cannons big enough to put your head into. In Switzerland they have relatively thin bar that arches out over the width of the piste that I envisage produces a fine spray of water droplets into the air. By all accounts its incredibly efficient - IIRC in just three minutes they can have a covering of snow and in 15 minutes enough to make it worth bashing.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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| Megamum wrote: |
| Now by the sounds of it there could be a couple of different systems - stab, you talk about snow cannons big enough to put your head into. In Switzerland they have relatively thin bar that arches out over the width of the piste that I envisage produces a fine spray of water droplets into the air. By all accounts its incredibly efficient - IIRC in just three minutes they can have a covering of snow and in 15 minutes enough to make it worth bashing. |
yes,there are many different systems, however I suspect you mean "in your little swiss resort" they have the thin bar, rather than "in Switzerland"
http://www.snowmakers.com/products/masterproducts.html
cheers,
Greg
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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| Megamum wrote: |
| Now by the sounds of it there could be a couple of different systems - stab, you talk about snow cannons big enough to put your head into. In Switzerland they have relatively thin bar that arches out over the width of the piste that I envisage produces a fine spray of water droplets into the air. By all accounts its incredibly efficient - IIRC in just three minutes they can have a covering of snow and in 15 minutes enough to make it worth bashing. |
I'm on about sticking your head in these bad boys. Everyone should do it at least once in their lives imo.
http://cache.daylife.com/imageserve/09e323G6kg5mZ/610x.jpg
that's not me by the way, nor is it my picture.
Ronald cheers, bit far for me to take my board though, looks like I get to abuse someone else's rentals for a change.
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kitenski, Wow, all sorts of different systems - I bet some of them are quite a sight when they are working. The ones they put in our resort look a bit like the Vikings a long lance that arches out over the piste. I wouldn't have ever thought that snowmaking was their purpose if I hadn't been told.
I must admit I like the snowamking concept and science behind it - its neat, uses basic scientific premise and clearly works if conditions are correct. A super real life adaptation of physical state phases that should be added to every description of these in a class to demonstrate a real life application. Real life explanations of scientific theory and principle are one of my hobby horses - science must be brought to life IMHO
Sorry, folks - anorak moment here, I'll get my coat 
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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kitenski, fascinating - thanks 
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...and it reckons I could have made snow in Leeds 12 days last winter......
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