St. Moritz, 18 January 2016. – Machine-made snow will be used to make the polo field
for the Snow Polo World Cup St. Moritz 2016 safer. Last week’s snowfall blended with
lake water so that the natural snow cannot be properly groomed. Resorting to
snowmaking is a safety measure for the polo ponies and the riders.
With another ten days to go before the start of the tournament, Lake St. Moritz features a
very stable layer of ice with a depth of around 35 centimetres, and the infrastructure
construction works are making good progress. Over the next few days, additional snow will
be made for the polo field that measures some 20,000 square metres. The management has
decided to resort to snowmaking for the safety of ponies and riders. The machine-made
snow causes no harm whatsoever to the lake water underneath the ice: only minimal
amounts of water are drawn from the lake, and the artificially made snow is made up of
nothing but water and does not contain any additives.
The weight of last week’s heavy snowfall pressed the ice layer into the water, causing water
to rise above the ice, mixing with the snow and freezing over. As a result, the natural snow is
no longer suited to prepare an ideal top layer for the polo field. Snowmaking guns will hence
be deployed over the coming days. This snow will be compacted and groomed to prepare the
polo field’s surface.
«Snow polo cannot be played at a world-class level without a compacted layer of snow. If the
surface is too frozen, the ponies may slip and be hurt,» Reto Gaudenzi, founder and CEO of
the Snow Polo World Cup St. Moritz, explains. «Our ponies are our athletes. We will do
everything we can to keep our ponies and our players from being hurt