OCR Text |
Show 3 A method of this sort takes much manpower and time and is usually not adaptable to normal ski area operations. Plot No. 5 - In this plot sodium chloride ( Na CI), common table salt or rock salt, was added to the snow surface in an unknown amount. However, the application was considered as lightly salted. The salt was then boot packed into the snow, causing a fairly good mixture of salt and snow throughout the total depth. After the boot packing, the surface was smoothed out by ski packing. This caused a very pronounced high resistant snowpack from top to bottom. Also, it will be noticed that the total depth of the snow was reduced by almost half. This method has been used on isolated race courses but again is probably too expensive for general ski area use. A slight deviation from this method might be worth trying on a ski area, i. e. lightly scatter the salt and then allow normal skiing pressure to take the place instead of the expensive proposition of boot packing and organized ski packing. The addition of salt by this method should be carefully controlled because of possible damage to vegetation during spring melt. Plot No. 6 - This plot was basically the same as plot 5 except salt was broadcast liberally and after the boot packing the snow surface was not smoothed with the skis. The total depth of snow was reduced by about one- half but it appears that too much salt will cause adverse effects. The average resistance is only one- half that of the lightly salted area. It would appear that a workable method for normal ski area operations might be found somewhere between the plot 5 method and the plot 6 method. |