Quantum Snow

Peter Veals and Trey Alvey, both recent atmospheric sciences PhD graduates, were recently mentioned in an article from the Deseret News entitled, “8 Start-ups Transforming the Face of Entrepreneurship in Utah.”  The article states, “One of the eight most exciting to come from the University of Utah this year is Quantum Snow.”  Veals and Alvey founded Quantum Snow to bring what skiers in Utah crave: fresh powder on demand, without having to wait for Mother Nature to deliver it.

“Our thought was, why not make a man-made snow that is the same as the powder that falls from the sky?” said Peter.Current made-made snow production tends to be heavy and icy, while Quantum Snow seeks to blow powder that’s as light and fluffy as natural snowfall.  

“We’ve developed a process to grow natural crystalline snow in our lab, with a density of about 5%, and now we are working on scaling it up and building our first small prototype” said Peter. 

They’ve acquired enough equipment to get started, but Veals and Alvey estimate that several more years of hard work lie ahead of them before skiers can expect to sample the product on Utah’s slopes.