John Todd is crazy about skiing and about having the right stuff (有必备的品质) to do it. As a boy in Finland, he would be down in the dumps when the first spring rains came to melt the freeze. He is now the world' s leading snow advisor. His business range includes ski resorts, indoor snow playgrounds and the biggest snow event of all: the Winter Olympics.
" When I was growing up, the winter arrived in mid-October and it would stay cold until May," the 64-year-old told CNN. " But around 2000, things began to change. " At 25, Todd began to coach the Finnish alpine (高山) ski team, but he quit two years later. As snow conditions worsened around the world, he decided to talk with physicists and geographers to learn about snow. " If you love snow," Todd said, " it is natural to want to organize snow. "
For those in the business of skiing, snow is not a natural phenomenon so much as a product. The sport accounts for over half of all Winter Olympic events, yet the average February temperature of host cities has risen from 0. 4℃ in the 1920—1950s, to 6. 3℃ in the 21st century. That is why every Winter Olympics since Lake Placid in 1980 has relied on artificial snow.
Snow can be made in machines that take water, mix it with compressed air and turn it into a mist of tiny drops that freeze. But they only work below certain temperatures. Todd has pioneered a technique of " recycling" snow by harvesting it and storing it. Before the Sochi games in Russia in 2014, he stored nearly 1m cubic meters of it.
For Milan, the host of the 2026 Winter Olympics, Todd recommended that the organizers combine snowmaking with snow recycling which uses much less water. " I hope the idea of storing snow will become their priority," Todd said.
