Slushy Sochi: Warm Weather Shows Challenges of Subtropical Snowmaking

Rating:***

A very revealing and honest description of this years’ Sochi Olympics, and the truth about the snow conditions and the problems they were facing by trying to maintain snowy mountains for competitors.

In this article they look at the conditions of the snow for this year's winter Olympics. The author talks about the 400 snow machines that were working over time trying to maintain an adequate quality and quantity of snow. Looking at the temperatures they had been having around the times of the games, sometimes about 10 degrees, it's no wonder they were in trouble with a lot of melting snow. It discussed techniques they used to try and fight the melting. It also showed the views of athletes and had citations from some fearing injury or death because of the very poor conditions.

As we all know, snow conditions can make all the difference between a nice, easy, enjoyable ski and a difficult, frustrating ski outing. Having the winter games in a subtropical climate was probably not the best idea, especially since there was such an abundance of snow other places around the globe this year. The athletes voicing their concerns about the dangerous courses makes you think about the extra precautions they would have to think to make it a safer and better performance for themselves. If some of them had only ever really trained in good, well maintained conditions, going to Sochi and trying to win a gold medal in conditions they had not been prepared for would have been quite a shock.

 

Mcpherson, Angie. "Slushy Sochi: Warm Weather Shows Challenges of Subtropical Snowmaking." National Geographic, 2014. Web. 10 Apr 2014. <http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/02/140214-snow-conditions-melt-sochi-olympics/>.