SMI® Customer Snowmaking Successes

Turnkey Success Story: Semmering, Austria

Considered the flagship ski resort of eastern Austria and located one hour outside the capitol city Vienna, Semmering is a high profile destination hosting some of the industry’s most popular races, including the Women’s World Cup.
Due to extremely warm temperatures in recent years, compounded by a limited water supply, Semmering faced the challenge of making more snow in a shorter period of time at marginal temperatures. Timing was also a critical factor in getting a new lake and pump system in place while waiting through a lengthy permitting process. Resort managers needed not only a system with the water capacity for future expansions, but also sufficient time for the reservoir to fill. Careful planning and engineering by Wintertechnik Engineering (WTE) in collaboration with SMI resulted in an efficient and timely installation, allowing a very successful start-up this season.

Working in partnership with (WTE), SMI’s early detection of and immediate problem-solving response during early testing phases sealed the new relationship, and helped move the resort owner’s multi-year snowmaking investment plan one giant step forward with an improved reputation for “guaranteed snow.”

Technical Data:

Pump stations added:
1 pump station rebuilit for automation at existing lake
1 new pump station installed at new lake

Pumps added and waterflow:
3 booster pumps each 200 kW (270 HP) and capacity of 1250 m3/h (330,000 gallons per hour)
3 circulating pumps at 1500 m3/h (396,250 gallons per hour)
3 high pressure pumps at 980 m3/h (258,900 gallons per hour) : 2 main pumps each 600 kW (800 HP)
+ 1 reserve controlled by frequency converter

Level of Automation: Wintertechnik-Siemens full automatic control (radio system)

Snow Machines added:
19 Fully Automatic SMI Super Wizzard Towers

Lake added: 72.000 cubic meters (19 million gallons)

Snowmaking capacity: at -6°C wet bulb, an area of 42 hectares (104 acres) can be covered with 30 cm (11.8 inches) of snow in roughly 50 hours