Fake snow. Good or Bad?

This might be a idiots questions but im a beginner and never skiied before so here goes.

Looking at the snow report for Borovets

http://www.j2ski.com/snow_forecast/Bulgaria/Borovets_snow_report.html

I noticed it says Machine Made under the snow conditions. It also says that 100% of the lifts are open. I thought there was only snow machines on only a few pistes?
Last thing, is machine made snow good or bad? as i here reviews saying places like the snow domes in England arnt very good as its fake snow, And im guessing machine made snow would be the same there as it is here?

Sorry if its a stupid question.

Cheers

Hi Sm4sh,
What you want to look at is how many of the pistes are open, not the lifts. I found this, although I don't know how reliable it is:

http://www.bulgaria-hotels.com/en/borovets_ski_conditions.html

According to this the Markudjik pistes are closed, presumably these are the lower ones (I can't remember now - it was years ago I went), but the other ones are open.

Querying the quality of artificial snow isn't a stupid question at all. It's a very interesting question :D

As far as I know, artficial snow can be of varying qualities according to the machinery that made it, and the weather conditions at the time. Sometimes it is awful - like ball bearings, and sometimes it's quite good. Even in a snow dome the quality can vary - last time I was ski-ing at Milton Keynes even the instructors were complaining about it.

Generally speaking I'd say artificial snow isn't as good as the real stuff, but then the quality of 'real' snow varies a lot as well - it can be icy, fluffy, slushy etc.

Ally

ah ok. i always thought that if the lifts are open then so are the pistes. Looking at the webcams it looks like theres abit of snow. But i also found this
http://www.igluski.com/bulgaria/bansko-snow-history_23498
Looking at that the best time to go is Feb/March time, which is good because thats when im going.
But thinking about it ... Fake snow is better than no snow lol right?

As Ally says, it varies. Humidity has a huge bearing on the quality. Additives also help the quality. The problem comes, when snow making conditions are not good, but the resort is under pressure to get snow cover to look good. We see that locally in Autumn, as there is a race to be the first hill to open. The one hill that waits for optimum conditions, has far better snow quality. Artificial snow can be better than any real snow on a groomed piste for racing, and carving, and can survive condition changes better as well.

I wouldn't think snow domes have any excuse, except operator error.

Thank god for man made it helps an awful lot of people and resorts to enjoy the winter.

i just hope it helps me enjoy mine lol.

sm4sh wrote:i just hope it helps me enjoy mine lol.

Any snow is good snow :lol:

Horrible stuff when you come off natural snow onto machine made stuff, it's grippy and doesn't feel right. However as past of a good base it's fantastic as it allows resort runs to stand up to the heavy traffic they have to carry. If it's just on the bottom runs to keep them covered then that's fine.
Having said that, snow making has come a long way in a short time. I can see a time in the next decade or so when they'll be producing machine made champagne powder...