As preparations for the 2022 Winter Olympics "ramp up, perhaps no business exchange better embodies global progress than America producing the snow that falls from China's skies," according to Peter Mertz of XINHUA. American ski industry execs are "crossing the Pacific more than ever to help Chinese officials gear up for the upcoming Beijing Winter Games." Brooke VanderKelen, who "spearheads sales and marketing efforts" for Snow Machines Inc., said, "I've made two trips to China in just the past few months." When SMI sold China's Yabuli Resort two Standard PoleCat snow guns in '95, it became the first American snow maker to "jump the Pacific." Today, there are 568 ski areas across China, according to government data, representing a "stunning growth that parallels China's economic explosion in the past 20 years." The U.S. made the world's first "artificial snow" in '52 at Grossinger's Catskill Resort Hotel in N.Y., and has since "perfected the art." Snow making is the "production of snow by forcing water and freezing, pressurized air through high-speed fans" called "snow guns" or "snow cannons." Aspen Mountain snow making Manager Harry Link said, "It's a great marriage -- one country that has a history of making snow, and another that has millions of skiers." Meanwhile, SMI has equipment in about 100 Chinese resorts, and is "actively designing and building snow making systems at the newest, most sophisticated ski resorts ever built" (XINHUA, 4/3).
