snow seeds
Stickers that harness cloud seeding technology to create a surface finish that helps regenerate snowfall in the mountains
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problem
Over many years, we've seen multiple ski resorts across the world shut down, citing changes in snowfall, and maintaining that climate change has significantly reducing snowfall quantity and winters have shortened. These factors have been also acasemically studied across the world and data provides further aid to these claims. Historically, these changes were managed by snowmaking activities, which have been resource intensive and unsustainable long-term.
solution
Creating and testing a technology that integrates smoothly into the activities and experiences of the locals and visitors in the mountains. By harnessing cloud-seeding technology to create a surface finish that can be applied to skis and snowboards, the community can be part of regenerative solutions in their ecosystems.
The creation came from a very simple question, in response to a conversation around the lack of snow during the expected winter in Gulmarg, Kashmir. The question was, "How do I as a snowboarder ,and designer, tackle the changing climate?"
The journey of Snow Seeds began from a rabbit hole, leading into studying climate change, global glacier melting rates, the reduction of winter and ever-present snowcaps. Significant statistical data showed that ski resorts around the world had been using snow blowing machines and artificial systems to bolster snow of the slopes to accommodate visitors during ski seasons. This use of technology was reflected in studies that show a change in the winters in many ways. Across the world, winters have shortened, with minimum temperatures rising and snowfall reducing year over year.
The impacts of these changes are multifold, from changes in economic activity with reduction in winter tourism to reduction of the available water throughout the year. In the situation of towns like Gulmarg, many residents are seasonal residents themselves, working as ski guides and instructors in the winter season, while tending to farms and pastures in the other seasons. There is certain supplementation in the summer, with hiking season, but the more famous of those hikes are centered around water bodies, which are also affected by the change in available water. These changes then trickle downstream, to all the areas that are supplied by these mountains, and the reduced availability further.
The process with Snow Seeds is to create a solution that integrates a sustainable, regenerative solution into people's existing routines and experiences. The proposed solution is a surface finish that is applied to skis and snowboards, and as you carve down the mountain, you're helping create new snow. The current iteration is in the form of stickers made using a proprietary variation of cloud seeding technology, that works from the ground up to the clouds, using the evaporation of the snow as the delivery method.
year
2025-
timeframe
Ongoing
category
Regenerative Design
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