The two main South Korean downhill ski and snowboarding 2018 Winter Olympic venues have seen €5 million (£4.4 million) spent on snowmaking ahead of the coming Olympics.
The investment has largely come from the Provincial Government in Gangwon with TechnoAlpin awarded the contract following a public tendering process.
The company says it has completed installations at Olympic freestyle ski venue Phoenix Park as well as at the larger Yongpyong, which will host slalom and GS Alpine skiing races where the company modernised the existing network and extended it to include 250 snow guns served by three pumping stations.
Marginal temperatures, high humidity and heavy use of ski slopes due to the popularity of winter sports in South Korea all pose challenges for snowmakers. In addition, South Korea does not have much history of staging global snowsports events.
“In Pyeongchang the slopes are open 24 hours a day and this is a particular challenge for the snowmaking systems in terms of quality,” said Michael Mayr, TechnoAlpin’s Asia Area Manager.
