Would you want to be a snowmaker?

[marzNC]

The buzz is growing about the Snow Factory as details are coming out. A recent video report notes that over 2 tons of snow can be made per hour, which translates into a foot of snow for the area needed for Boreal's summer camp every 2-3 days. That comes from pulling in 12 gallons of water per minute from Boreal's wells. No additives, water only. That's compared to a fan gun that pulls 40-100 gallons per minute and must have air temps under 30 degrees to be effective.

https://ski.curbed.com/2016/6/6/11865406/woodward-tahoe-boreal-snowmaking-summer-

 

[marzNC]

Turns out the snowmakers who work at Loveland come from New Zealand. They work for two months. All done at the end of November. Last year Loveland didn't get decent snowmaking temps until mid-October. Hopefully that won't happen again this season.

https://skiloveland.com/snowmaking-operations/

From the blog entries for 2015-16:

 

[G-money]

I worked at my small local ski hill as a teen as a lift operator and the snowmaking always looked interesting. That place closed, but my favorite place to ski here in the Midwest (Perfect North) does an AMAZING job with their snowmaking. I can't say enough nice things about that place. I know that at the first opportunity temperature-wise, those guys are gonna be ON IT! I'm like a kid at Christmas when they start blowing snow!

 

[marzNC]

I worked at my small local ski hill as a teen as a lift operator and the snowmaking always looked interesting. That place closed, but my favorite place to ski here in the Midwest (Perfect North) does an AMAZING job with their snowmaking. I can't say enough nice things about that place. I know that at the first opportunity temperature-wise, those guys are gonna be ON IT! I'm like a kid at Christmas when they start blowing snow!

Welcome to the Diva world! The second video in Post #1 of this thread is about Perfect North. Fair to say that for small ski hills in the flatlands, most only exist because of 100% snowmaking makes it possible to open the slopes for a long enough season.

 

[surfsnowgirl]

I was looking at Bromley Mountain's open positions and thought of this thread as they are hiring a snowmaker.

https://www.bromley.com/employment/jobs/?id=20

I think it would be a cool job even if just for a season.

 

[marzNC]

I was looking at Bromley Mountain's open positions and thought of this thread as they are hiring a snowmaker.

https://www.bromley.com/employment/jobs/?id=20

I think it would be a cool job even if just for a season.

Got a chance to ride in a groomer last season. The guy was a first year. He had quit a good paying IT job to follow his dream. Hired on in early season for as a snowmaker as a way to get in the door. Once snowmaking was done (mid-Dec), he got hired as a groomer. Had no idea what he'd be doing in the off-season but he planned to be back for the next season.

 

[marzNC]

Never know when I'll come across news related to snowmaking. Recently I was at Jiminy Peak (western MA), which has about 160 acres with snowmaking. Just happened to be when they were testing the snowmaking system during two cold nights. Hiked up to the top where the snowmaking pond is located, right next to a power generating windmill. What I didn't know is that Jiminy replaced ALL their snow guns for a more efficient model for this season. That's 450 snow guns. Quite an investment. Jiminy has a snowmaking blog.

https://jiminypeak.com/The-Mountain...D/616/ArticleID/93/Getting-Ready-to-Make-Snow

 

[marzNC]

Forgot about this thread. Recently saw that Mount Van Hoevenberg is using a Snow Factory for the nordic trails. Experimented last season and made good use of it to make sure the U.S. Paralympic Nordic Skiing team could practice starting in late October. Van Ho is leasing the Snow Factory but hasn't ruled out buying it in the long run. Nordic centers in Scandinavia have been using Snow Factory for a while.

https://www.newyorkupstate.com/outd...ake_placid_is_defying_the_laws_of_nature.html

The buzz is growing about the Snow Factory as details are coming out. A recent video report notes that over 2 tons of snow can be made per hour, which translates into a foot of snow for the area needed for Boreal's summer camp every 2-3 days. That comes from pulling in 12 gallons of water per minute from Boreal's wells. No additives, water only. That's compared to a fan gun that pulls 40-100 gallons per minute and must have air temps under 30 degrees to be effective.

https://ski.curbed.com/2016/6/6/11865406/woodward-tahoe-boreal-snowmaking-summer-

 

[VickiK]

@vanhoskier , is Mount Van Hoevenberg connected to your ski diva name?

Off-topic questions aside, thanks for the interesting post, Marz.

 

[marzNC]

Has your home mountain added or upgraded snow guns in the last few years?

Even small hills are putting more resources into snowmaking. Dartmouth Skiway is actually owned by Dartmouth College. It has about 100 acres with snowmaking on about half the terrain. The Skiway has 300 snowguns, with 27 new ones for 2017-18.

https://news.dartmouth.edu/news/2018/01/science-snowmaking-lesson-slopes
January 2018

" . . .
Where does the snowmaking process start?

It starts in our spring-fed pond, which has three pumps that send water to a pumphouse. From there it gets pumped up the hill at 700 pounds per square inch through a series of pipes—about 9 miles of pipe. At the base, near the snowmaking building, there are also four air compressors, and that air gets pumped up the hill, too.

So you have two sets of pipes, one for water and one for air. At what point do the water and air mix?

We’re looking right now at a sled-mounted gun, which is mobile. Air and water each go through the gun, and they mix at the head. First, in a small nozzle, the air combines with a very small amount of water to create condensation nuclei—particles of ice that act as agents to promote freezing. You can take water to well below zero and it still won’t freeze, but when compressed air exits the gun, it expands, and you get super-cooling. When those little ice particles meet the bulk water that comes from larger nozzles, you get snow—not exactly the way it falls from the sky, though. What comes out of snow guns is more spherical and more durable than fresh, natural flakes.

OK, so this stuff gets sprayed, making piles all over the mountain. When can you start grooming, moving the snow where it needs to be, and creating varied terrains?

Fifty percent of snowmaking actually takes place after the particle hits the ground. If possible, you want to let it sit there for 24 hours before you do any grooming, so it has time to “cure.” If you push it around right away, it clumps, and you end up with what skiers call “death cookies”—tough to ski on.

Why are snow guns a lot taller than they used to be?

Our tall guns are permanently mounted and they drop snow in a smaller area, so you do have to move it more, but they have advantages, in terms of efficient use of resources. Once you get 18 feet off the ground, you increase snowmaking by 50 percent because of what we call “hang time” in the air—time when the snow can form before it hits the ground. The old ground guns used between 300 and 600 cubic feet of air per minute. The new guns use 5 to 10 cubic feet of air per minute. Air is the most expensive part of snow-making. We have to rent the compressors, and fuel them—each uses between 18 and 20 gallons of diesel per hour—and we have four of them, working at least 400 hours per season.
. . ."

 

[marzNC]

Missed the article in Powder from August 2017 about snowmaking in general. Read that "According to the National Ski Areas Association, 91 percent of ski areas have invested millions of dollars to install snowmaking systems on their mountains, and the average ski resort has upped its snowmaking capacity by 60 percent in the last 21 years." The article is an interview with the former GM of Mt Abram in ME, who is now heading up a ski area in Alaska. Mt Abram invested almost $500,000 in snowmaking upgrades in recent years. More efficient technology dropped the costs from 20% of the overall expense budget to 15%. Mt Abram also invested in alternative power such as solar panels.

Good snowmaking equipment and alternative power sources go hand-in-hand at Jiminy Peak. Using solar panels and a wind turbine, Jiminy is using 100% renewal energy. The owners of Jiminy Peak were forward thinking and made the investment in 2007. It took ten years to know for sure that it was a gamble worth doing. According to articles in 2017, the wind turbine installation cost $4 million.

 

[marzNC]

Having experienced how much automating snow guns and adding new ones that are more efficient can make a difference at Massanutten in the last few years, it's not surprising that more American ski resorts and even small ski areas are actively moving towards more automation. I didn't realize how far behind the technology was compared to Europe. According to an interview with a veteran snowmaker in 2017: "Ninety percent of European snowmaking is automated. In North America, we have some system automation, but true automation is just now gaining traction here."

 

[marzNC]

Big Sky is investigating the idea of using treated waste water for snowmaking. They have been using that type of water to water golf courses for a while. But with increased growth in recent years, water is becoming a serious issue for the area.

Arizona Snowbowl was the first ski resort to use treated waste water from Flagstaff. Made big news in 2012. Snowmaking is based 100% on that type of water now.

https://www.newsdeeply.com/water/ar...own-may-use-treated-wastewater-for-snowmaking

 

[marzNC]

In 2015, using treated waste water was still news. In the UK, an article mentioned Pennsylvania, and Virginia as states in addition to Arizona that had ski resorts doing the same thing as AZ Snowbowl. Bear Creek in PA started in 2013. There were plans for Wintergreen in VA, but I'm not sure if they do it or not. I know Massanutten uses surface water.

It took AZ Snowbowl a decade to get through legal hurdles to use treated waste water for snowmaking. By 2017, the idea was simply part of snowmaking for Snowbowl.

 

[marzNC]

Found a good overview that explains all the variables related to blowing snow on slopes. Far more than just having the right temperature and enough water. The range in cost is huge and there are lots of options to choose from. Blue Mountain in PA chose to work with EMS Environmental when it was time figure out how to upgrade snowmaking in a significant way. The goal was to move the business forward and save on energy costs in the long run. EMS Environmental is a environmental consulting company. They also worked with Tussey Mountain in PA on a 5-year plan to revamp the snowmaking capabilities.

https://emsenv.com/2016/06/08/cost-to-make-snow/


* * * *

Like everything else these days, it's possible to find used snowmaking equipment online. A starting price seems to be around $2000, usually cheaper when guns are bought in packages. Of course, that doesn't include setup for tower guns and pipelines if they don't already exist in the right places.

 

[marzNC]

Everett Kircher was quite an innovator as he developed Boyne Mountain. Boyne has snowmaking in the 1950s. By the 1970s, a patent was granted for the Boyne Snowmaker and SMI was a licensee. SMI is a major company in the snowmaking business that happens to be a family company based in Midland, Michigan. So they were essentially neighbors of the Kircher family.

 

[marzNC]

Probably no surprise that Crystal Mountain in WA uses SMI snowmaking equipment. Crystal is owned and operated by John Kircher. He is the brother of Stephen Kircher and brought Crystal under Boyne Resorts when he was responsible for Boyne West. Become sole owner to concentrate on Crystal and has big plans. $5 million was invested in snowmaking during the summer of 2017. They installed "29 new SMI SuperPuma snow guns and 5 V2 Viking wand guns." These are automated snow guns. The SuperPuma guns are big fan guns that are mounted on poles to cover a large area. More snowmaking expansion is planned for 2018.

Crystal has about 2600 acres. They had snowmaking on 70 acres for 2017-18, mainly near the base. Funny for me to think about because my home mountain in VA, Massanutten, has 100% snowmaking coverage. Of course, Massanutten has only about 75 acres total to cover, plus the snow tubing lanes that have 5 mounted fan guns. The goal for both mountains it to provide a way to ski top to bottom by the Christmas holiday period.

The Coverage Area

The coverage area is roughly 30,000 square feet per gun. The total coverage by our current snowmaking system is 70 acres (roughly 53 football fields) and includes the Meadow, Quicksilver, Tinkerbell, Broadway and Upper Arwine’s.

With the right temperatures, between two to three feet of snow can be made with each gun in a 24-hour period.

Phases two and three include extending snowmaking up Queens Run to the top of the Forest Queen Express lift and and up Lucky Shot to the summit, providing top-to-bottom coverage for all ability levels

 

[marzNC]

Two years ago, SquawAlpine put together a video about snowmaking improvements. Over 5 years, KSL spent $8 million dollars for snow guns and snow making infrastructure, and state-of-the-art groomers. One of the points made is that beginner lifts used to require going uphill a bit to load in low snow years. Changes were made to allow snowmaking in those areas to assure an easier time for beginners. Probably especially important for families getting kids started on the slopes during Christmas vacation.

 

[marzNC]

Not surprisingly, snowmaking is key for snowsports in Australia. As July approaches, people are getting exciting about the upcoming season.

Mt. Buller started using a Snow Factory in 2017 to get a head start on covering the basic trails. The video is in this article shows the installation.

Mt Buller's "Snow Factory" - April 2017

Like the American southwest, a key issue in Australia related to snowmaking is the availability of water. Buller is in the process of the planning needed to increase the water supply by creating a large lake that would double the snowmaking capacity. The lake would also be useful to fight forest fires. Apparently "Mt Buller already has chronic water shortages and has run out of water for snowmaking purposes in four of the past five snow seasons." If all goes according to plan, the lake would be available in 2020.

Mountaintop dam to lock-in future of skiing at Mt Buller - June 2018

Mt. Buller has about 750 acres. The earliest snowmaking at Buller started in the 1970s. It's a few hours drive from Melbourne.

 

[ilovepugs]

Check out this documentary about Plattekill Mountain’s snow makers. Really interesting look at a day in the life.