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Local politics, the county, and the world, as viewed by Tammy Maygra Tammy’s views are her own, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Bill Eagle, his pastor, Tammy’s neighbors, Wayne Mayo, Brian Stout, Former President Trump, Henry Heimuller, Joe Biden, Jerry Falwell Jr., Mike Johnson, Ted Cruz, Joe Biden’s dogs, or Claudia Eagle’s Cats. This Tammy’s Take (with the exception of this disclaimer) is not paid for or written by, or even reviewed by anyone but Tammy and she refuses to be bullied by anyone. See Bill’s Standard Disclaimer
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Ever try Indoor Skiing?
Year Round Indoor Skiing
I thought with our latest hit of cold weather, and people were complaining, other people across the globe are actually wanting snow and ice. And have actually made areas for it for people to use. With global warming effecting the entire world, Sweden has constructed the Torsby Ski Tunnel. Scandinavia's Indigenous Sami people are widely believed to have invented skiing. The museum in the town Umeå, displays a pair of 5,200-year-old skis that are among the oldest ever found. As temperatures across the country are rising more than twice as fast as the global average, there is less and less snow. So, people in Torsby decided to do something about it. As an official Vasaloppet training center, as well as a partner of the Swedish cross-country team, the town offers training facilities for elite and recreational skiers alike. That's because inside Torsby's 1.3km-long concrete tunnel, you can cross-country ski eight months a year. Finland built a ski tunnel in the 1990s, so Sweden thought they could too, decades later and they did. The tunnel, which was made with concrete arches and follows the natural slope of the hillside, is Sweden's first. It was also the world's longest when it was constructed. Its cooling system relies mainly on underground pipes directly below the floor, covered in a layer of permafrost.. On top of that sits a thin layer of artificial snow. It is brought in from a pile outside in January or February, just before the tunnel closes for the season, and has to last from the start of the next season in early June until its end seven or eight months later. When you open the door and enter a bright indoor hall the size of a basketball court, its floor covered in snow. Punched through the wall at the far end were the two tunnel mouths. The tunnel has two equivalent 1.3km tracks and can be skied in either direction, making for a 2.6km total distance. The loop begins and ends in the hall .In here, the temperature is always -4C. There is no wind and no ice. According to the Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute, there were 16 fewer days of snow cover in Sweden from 1991-2020 compared to 1961-1991. Since the opening of Torsby's ski tunnel, there are now a handful of others across Sweden, with plans for even more –the construction of at least one of them, located inside a mountain. Artificial snow is not the right word to use as It's water and air mixed under high pressure, exactly the same as with natural snow. The difference is the crystals are slightly coarser. When snow falls slowly from high above, the crystals splay out. No matter what everybody loves a day or two of fun in the snow.
Tammy
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