Salting ski race course

In the sport of alpine ski racing, applying chemicals to the snow surface is done to harden the course, making the race more fair for athletes running later in the race. The most common chemicals used are sodium chloride, calcium chloride, urea, ammonium nitrate, and potassium nitrate. The most important thing when salting a race course is having the right crystal structure and moisture content in the snow. When a race course is salted well, it causes the salt crystals to melt and refreeze which subsequently causes them to bond tightly together. This provides a dense layer of snow with a consistent surface throughout the whole course.

The actual salting of the race course is rather simple, handfuls of salt are grabbed and thrown evenly throughout the course, making sure to get the highest and lowest lines so that there is no inconsistency in the snow which could be a hazard. It is necessary to get the apex of the turn especially well because that is the part of the turn when the skier is exerting the most pressure on the snow. The person salting the course needs to make sure that they don’t throw down clumps of salt, this can cause holes in the course which can be dangerous for racers traveling at high speeds.Salting a race course is done mostly when the snow is really wet and slushy. When the snow has a lot of moisture in it, salting makes a race course faster than an unsalted course.

The two most important factors that determine whether salt will work or not are crystal structure and moisture. Crystals that are too sharp will prevent the deep penetration of the salt into the snow. Crystals that are too round lack flat surfaces that can bond tightly to adjacent crystals. A mixture of rounded and sharp crystals, when salted can create a difficult surface that does interesting things when it starts to break up. In order for all of this to work, the snow needs to have a high moisture content of around 60%.

Salting a race course will work best when the weather conditions are sunny and warm. Salting may also work when it is raining, when rain is adding moisture to the snow. In general, salt will not harden the snow if it is cloudy and just above freezing.

Determining whether to salt a race course or not is done in a couple different ways. One way would be to designate a patch of snow and throw down some salt. After ten minutes, the test patch is observed to see if the snow is hard and looks like it would make the course fair for all racers. Another test is to grab a handful of snow. If the snow forms a nice compacted snowball. then salting will be necessary. If the snow crumbles and doesn’t make a nice snow ball, then the snow does not have enough moisture in it to be salted.

Although timing of salting is not crucial to the result, many coaches would say that it is better to salt a race course early in the morning when the snow is still hard. This is because there is already a hard base of snow to work off of. Salting then will harden that base and create a deep layer of hard snow that stays even more consistent.Letting the salt sit on the snow for a minimum of 45 minutes is ideal for a hard, consistent surface. Not letting the salt sit will cause the surface to fall apart and will be hard for the athlete to pressure the ski. Additional slipping and contact on the snow will add extra moisture to the snow, which is what the course needs.Salting a course over and over again, can pull too much moisture out of the snow and causes the salts crystals to become so large that they don’t bond together as tightly and as a consequence they cannot create a hard surface.

When snow and salt are combined, the salt crystals breaks up and splits up into ions. The more ions the crystal breaks up to, the lower the freezing point, which subsequently would create a harder surface.

The different types of chemicals cost different amounts of money. Sodium chloride, the most common chemical used, costs $5 per 50 lbs. bag. The next most common one, calcium chloride, costs $16.99 per bag. Urea, which is a fertilizer, costs $17 per bag. Salt bags are sold in bulk packs called pallets and each bag weighs around 50 lbs. A typical pallet contains 40 bags each. A typical slalom course will require approximately 8 bags of salt and a typical giant slalom course will require 12 bags of salt.

Salting a race course is only safe in slalom and giant slalom. Speed courses (downhill and super g) have too much area and it would cost too much. Salting in a speed race can also be very dangerous, due to the high speeds. If salted wrong, a athlete could hurt themselves badly.

Many coaches have moved away from nitrate-based chemicals because of increased terrorist concerns. Ammonium Nitrate is used in military explosives and makeshift bombs that a terrorist might use. Therefore the purchase of large quantities of these chemicals is more closely monitored and airports screen luggage for the presence of these chemicals.