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Proctor Academy tries.Proctor Academy hopes to add a color to Mother Nature’s palette next fall in the foothills of the White Mountains — a splash of white.A splash of white 25 feet high and covering just under a third of an acre, actually.Proctor Academy — a private boarding and day school located in Andover, known at one time as the “School on Skis” — is one of the first places in the Northeast to engage in “snow farming,” which is the practice of storing snow from this past winter, through the summer heat, in hopes of reducing reliance on temperatures and early-season snowmaking to get students on the slopes at the Proctor Ski Area.The process involves the same insulation principles used to store and transport ice during the summer months in the late 1800s and early 1900s.For anyone who ever tried to save snowballs in a freezer until summer, prepare to feel seen.“It’s all pretty cool,” said Jason Nelson, Proctor Academy’s Eastern Alpine program director.“But the real story will be in October, if the snow actually stays through the summer.” Take a drive along Blackwater Lane in Andover, and it’s hard to miss the newly installed Snow Secure System.What looks like a massive white tarp on a ski slope, situated among the greens and browns of the hillside’s groundcover, a bright blob roughly 180 feet by 70 feet, and 25 feet thick at the deepest part.Grooming equipment was used this spring to push snow off slopes into a pile near the base of a hill just up the hill from a nearby lodge.“I think it was about April 9th, 10th, we put it in,” Nelson said.“Basically, all of the effort goes into pushing the pile of snow — 35 hours of grooming time it took, of pushing snow from the upper part of the mountain down to the lower part.” How does it work?Proctor partnered with a company called Snow Secure to purchase the snow farming system, which uses large, white polystyrene mats about 2½ inches thick.The mats are similar to weatherproof insulation used in housing construction.The mat and other pieces arrived at the school, and the system was installed the next day.“They dropped it, we showed up the next day at 7 and the whole thing was installed by 2 o’clock,” Nelson said.“The mats that are on the top of the pile are actually what provide the insulation and keep the thermal mass cold.” Monitors are located underneath the tarp, allowing Snow Secure to track the temperature.“It can be 105 degrees Fahrenheit on top, and can be 35 degrees underneath,” Nelson said.Antti Lauslahti, the CEO of Snow Secure USA, said the company is excited to work with Proctor “to explore how snow storage can help create more reliable early-season training conditions.” “Our snow storage solution is designed to protect the snowpack throughout the warm New Hampshire summer and help keep rain away from the stored snow, allowing it to remain intact for reuse in late October,” Lauslahti said.‘Get kids on snow faster’ Scott Allenby, chief strategy and communications officer at Proctor Academy, said the Snow Secure equipment was purchased thanks to a “generous donation” from a benefactor who wished to remain anonymous.“We weren’t necessarily looking to be in the snow farming experimental business, but the donor approached the school,” Allenby said.“They said, ‘There’s technologies out there, you guys have an unbelievable facility here.We would love to help experiment with this and see if it’s something that can really impact both the kids at the school, the kids not at the school who benefit from the facility, and get kids on snow faster.’” Allenby said the initial investment in the project was $120,000 to $150,000.“They think it’ll be like a three-year payback,” Allenby said.“This is on a small scale.I think there’s some mountains that are doing entire runs, a way bigger scale.This is to see, ‘OK does this work at this latitude, at this longitude, and what’s the snow recovery rate?” I think they said it’s between 70 and 80% of the snowpack will stay over the summer.” “We expect to preserve more than 70% of the snowpack on roughly 10% of the hill, which should meaningfully reduce our early-season snowmaking, the associated energy use, and water draw from the Blackwater River,” said Ryan Graumann, Proctor’s director of communications.“The project also expands what we can offer Proctor athletes and the visiting college programs that train here.” Athletes from Dartmouth, Harvard, Boston College, Babson, the University of New Hampshire and Colby-Sawyer College use the Proctor Ski Area to train.Icy past meets a snowy present The insulation process the tarp operates under is the same principle the Winter Hill Ice Co.used a century ago when Andover was home to the largest icehouse east of the Mississippi, shipping Highland Lake ice to Boston by rail, Graumann said.Until 1927, the company insulated blocks of ice with sawdust to prevent melting and allow the ice to be stored and shipped out during the summer.The same concept is now used in snow farming operations at sites across Europe.“I think it’s been going on in Europe for a decade as climate change has impacted different regions differently,” Allenby said.“Inherently we know ski areas are challenged from an environmental standpoint.This is as much about creating better early-season training opportunities, just getting kids on snow earlier.” Nelson said he became aware of snow farming when he saw the process firsthand a few years ago.“I went to Switzerland to some ski camps there, and we were hiking around I saw some of these huge tarps,” Nelson said.“I’m like, ‘What the heck are you doing with all of those tarps?’ and I lift it up, and I’m like, ‘That’s snow.This is crazy, what is going on here?’” Nelson said in years past, students have typically been able to get on snow around Dec.“Our goal with this system is to get students on the mountain Nov.1,” Nelson said.“Try to get out there a month to a couple, three weeks, early.That would be most ideal.” Snowball effect for NH ski industry The debut of the Snow Secure System in the Granite State comes on the heels of new research out of UNH showing that the majority of New Hampshire ski industry professionals are concerned about the effects of global warming on the industry, which generates close to $278.8 million each season in the Granite State.Researchers found that 85% of the survey respondents were either “alarmed” (42%) or “concerned” (43%) about climate change.The Granite State ranks sixth in the nation for snow recreation activity, according to Ski New Hampshire.An estimated 2.8 million people visit ski areas here to engage in recreation activities and spend about $384.2 million at resorts and surrounding areas.The vast majority ($278.8 million) is spent during the ski season — December through April.Ski-related tourism supports an estimated 10,000 seasonal jobs and 6,000 year-round jobs in New Hampshire.Given the sheer volume of snow under the insulated tarp, might folks be tempted to reach under and grab some, for an Independence Day snowball fight?“I’m sure there’ll be some temptation,” Allenby said.