Alpine skiing-Frozen in Time: Levi's farmed snow sets stage for Shiffrin

By Martyn Herman

(Reuters) -When American great Mikaela Shiffrin attempts to add another reindeer to her herd by winning Saturday's opening World Cup slalom race in Finland, she will do so on recycled snow.

The Finnish resort of Levi, high inside the Arctic Circle, has been hosting World Cup races since 2004 and goes to extraordinary lengths to ensure perfect conditions.

While Finns are known for farming reindeer, what is perhaps more surprising is that they have also mastered the art of farming snow: a technique which could help ski resorts mitigate the impacts of climate change.

Days before the world's top ski racers compete at Levi, temperatures have already plummeted and the hills and forests have been transformed into picture-postcard snowscapes.

But even without the year's first big dump of snow, Levi was ready, thanks to a system first tested in 2016 in response to the cancellation of races in 2015.

Each spring, before the thaw, snow is piled up in huge storage areas and covered with geotextile blankets and Finnfoam insulating material to stop it melting in the summer heat, meaning that 70% of the farmed snow survives.

Then, in October, before it freezes too hard, it is pushed back onto the slopes to form the base of the ski runs that will be used at the weekend.

"The winter can arrive any time from early October to mid-November up here," Marko Mustonen, commercial director at Levi Ski Resort, told Reuters by phone on Wednesday.

"Without snow, a ski resort doesn't work so to make sure that we are ready for the World Cup race we decided 10 years ago to harvest some 15,000 cubic metres of snow.

"It worked out well and allowed a good base preparation and now we farm around 40,000 cubic metres which means we can build the base and secure the race course. Every year, we've got better at reducing snow loss."

Levi has invested heavily in the latest and most energy-efficient snow-making systems but rather than have to start from scratch every year, Mustonen says re-using the previous year's snow cuts down on energy and water use, both of which can be high in the production of man-made snow.

"It's snowing now in Levi but you can say that the base of the course at the weekend will be constructed using 100% recycled snow that was either made or fell last year.

"Actually it could even be several years old."

No skier has enjoyed the conditions at Levi more than Shiffrin, who has won eight World Cup races at the resort, each victory earning her another reindeer, the first of which she called Rudolph and still lives in a local farm.

The others are called Sven, Mr. Gru, Ingemar, Sunny, Lorax, and Grogu and she may well have to think up another name come Saturday as she bids for a record-extending 102nd World Cup victory and 65th in her specialist slalom discipline.

"She visits them every year, so let's see if she has a new one at the weekend," Mustonen said.  

(Reporting by Martyn Herman; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne)