The opportunities snow brings

So let’s talk about new opportunities in snow. Snow is a fantastic material that can generate completely new opportunities. A good example is in the mountains, which during summer is quite difficult to access. Mostly access enabled by hiking or bicycling as there is a lot of rocks and difficult passes to get through. The only option to transport large material and persons is by helicopter. But in the winter, the snow covers all unevenness, and it’s suddenly possible to drive with large machines and then enable both passenger transport, as you can see in the picture, and transport of materials for cottages or other buildings, to make it more hospitable both during summer and winter.

However, sometimes the winter can linger longer than expected, which means that, for example, bicycling becomes more difficult, especially if you don’t have such wide tires that you don’t sink through the snow. As you see in this picture taken in the middle of June, I miscalculated the amount of snow as I thought it was summer. But another good thing about the snow in the mountains is that when it melts, rivers are created, which can be used for electric production, which is also an important consequence of snowfall. Other possibilities, there’s also rice during the winter and which are made possible by snow are to create completely new meeting places and completely new works of art.

One example is here at the Luleå University of Technology, where we built an igloo that was used both for a lecture hall or just a cool place to hang out and study.

But an igloo is not the only thing that can be built in snow. Some years there are also have been art competitions where students could create different artifacts from snow. Not as big as this one in this picture, but there have been a lot of different sculptures that ornamented the university area. A very popular recurring attraction in Luleå is the ice road that is a road on the sea around the city of Luleå, which is a peninsula where some are plowed, that there is ice so you can skate and kick. The kick or spark, as we say in Sweden is consisting of two metal skids that is put together with the wooden handle, which you see in the picture.

You can transport yourself by standing on one of the skids and kicking with the other foot on the ice, which is a very comfortable way of transporting yourself on ice. Another part of the road is also left with some snow so you can walk, ride a horse or even riding a bike. What it’s also nice is that this open area of the sea ice also can give opportunity for events, as in this case where the photo is taken, there were different presentation at different stands and around 100 to 150 people at the event and event with the complete and unique environment. Also note that the ice is so strong that it’s possible to drive with a vehicle on it.

The snow also offers completely crazy opportunities. No one would get the idea to jump from the roof during summer, but when there is a lot of snow and the snow must be shoveled off the roof, the idea quickly arises. This sounds fantastic but you have to be careful to check what is hidden in the snow so you don’t jump on anything that can actually harm you. But jumping in the snow is one of the most nicest things when you just get down in the snow and the snow catches you.

And finally, one thing that is not that peaceful, but very fun is throwing snowballs. Snowball war. But for this, the snow needs to be the right type of the snow so the snow grains sticks together and enables the formation of the ball. This happens when the temperature is warmer, closer to zero degrees centigrade and the liquid water content is high in the snow. So what new opportunities do you see in snow?