Snowmaking Success Story: Rosa Khutor, Russia: Sochi 2014 Olympic Venue

RRosa Khutor Resort near Sochi in Russia will be the host of the alpine, snowboard, freestyle and cross competitions for the 2014 Olympic Games.

The snowmaking design and owner objectives were extremely challenging due to the big vertical, marginal temperatures, wide slopes, environmental aspects, energy and logistics. The broader project objectives were to include the best technology in a very powerful system with good value. Significant Olympic experience and a strong local Russian partner like Skado were also requested.

The Alpine course layouts and mapping changed considerably during the planning process, but a detailed engineering study was commenced to document and detail the proposed snowmaking system. The Rosa Khutor leadership team engaged local engineers along with SMI Snow Makers, Skado and the RK engineering team to assist with the lakes, pumping, cooling, water pumping and piping distribution system, power supply and distribution and communication engineering along with detailed construction schedules.

"Three computers and two large monitors control and display precise information on all aspects of snowmaking – from real-time weather and flow rates to operation hours – making the whole production process simple and efficient."

There was considerable debate on the advantage and disadvantages of fan and stick snowmaking technology. The wide slopes, the limited and very marginal weather conditions, energy limitations and wind fighting capability were the key factors in Rosa Khutor selecting an all fan system with primarily fixed position tower fans. Swing arms and portable carriages were utilized on the steep slopes and flatter areas.

Based on the coverage requirements, the snowmaking system was sized at 46m³/min water capacity, 23m³/min water cooling capacity, with 160 SMI Super PoleCat and Puma Snowtowers and Snowmakers for the Alpine slopes. The snowgun and hydrant spacing was tightened from 75 to 40 meters as the system dropped down in elevation. The full snowmaking power load for the 2010/11 system is 11.2 MW.

SMI’s SmartSnow software and controls are the brains behind the automation. SmartSnow is monitoring and controlling the lake and sump levels, the water cooling pumps and towers, the three pump stations, the weather devices and snowguns. The software is dual language for both Russian and English.

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