Not-so-fresh powder: Russia to store snow for 2014 Olympics

0
Ski jump at Sochi

Sochi, Russia gets heavy snow. But when the South Russian city — roughly on the same latitude as central Wyoming and upstate New York — hosts the Olympics next year, it wants to be darn sure it’s got the powder for it.

So the Russian government has decided to keep some of this year’s snow. It’s set aside 450,000 cubic meters — almost 1.6 million cubic feet — of snow under a 15-inch covering of processed sawdust. That snow will be set aside for any emergency during the 2014 Olympics.

The government has asked the Rosa Khutor ski resort and hotel to store the snow. The ski resort will only allow hotel guests to ski this year in preparation.

See the story at Discovery News.