In the early days of winter sports, the work of compressing the snow was done with skis and later with machines to make skiing easier and safer. Later on, the advantages of turning more easily on skis and the possibility of skiing at higher speeds on prepared pistes had to be considered within the safety aspect. Nowadays, of course, it is the quality of the pistes which is the main factor on which most skiers base their choice of ski resort.
To meet the users' ever growing requirements, skiing areas and mountain cableways are operated at immense expense with the use of vast engineering resources. Competition has been triggered off in trying to invest in bigger and better equipment and machinery. However, the fact that spending on "ever bigger and better" machinery could prove to be a bottomless pit has made many piste operators stop and think. At the same time, the call for ecological and economical snow handling methods can not be ignored. [...]