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Does your home/regular mountain have automated snowmaking?

marzNC

Angel Diva
One of the big differences at my home mountain, Massanutten in northern VA, in the past decade was the addition of automated snow guns. With the increased need for making use of small windows of time for snowmaking that can last only a few hours, automation is increasingly important. Issues with staffing this winter may also be a factor for ski areas without any automated snow guns.

Does your home mountain or favorite resort have automated snowmaking? If so, do you have any idea when the change started? Automation can be retrofitted to some snow guns.

For more about snowmaking, I've put notes in this thread for a few years:
https://www.theskidiva.com/forums/index.php?threads/would-you-want-to-be-a-snowmaker.19745/
 

snoWYmonkey

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Jackson Hole has snowmaking, and seems to be adding more each year. Initially I think it was to cover up a few spots that need a little extra coverage either because they are low elevation or particularly rocky.

While I am purist, I admit to loving the season extension with the man made, especially as our groomers do such a good job keeping it as soft as possible.

I feel as though it was already happening when I started at the resort in 2001, but only very limited at the time.
 

marzNC

Angel Diva
Jackson Hole has snowmaking, and seems to be adding more each year. Initially I think it was to cover up a few spots that need a little extra coverage either because they are low elevation or particularly rocky.
Thanks for the info. This season was the first time I saw the Alta snow guns in action. Usually not fired up after early December when there is enough cover. The big permanent guns are covered up with camp tarps for the rest of the season. Some working as a snowmaker sometimes can start working as a groomers= after snowmaking is no longer needed.

What I'm more interested in learning is which resorts have automated snowmaking. For instance, at Wintergreen in VA, all the snow guns lining the green trails can turn on at the same time with no one near them. With a fully automated system, I think the guns turn on as soon as the temp and humidity hit the level that's pre-set in advance of weather that allows for snowmaking.
 

tinymoose

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Doing some googling, it seems Shawnee, Liberty, and Blue here in PA have some automated snow guns?
 

snoWYmonkey

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Marz NC that's wild! I doubt we do. Sorry for not understanding the question fully as I did not even know that it was a thing. So I missed the automated part in your question.
 

marzNC

Angel Diva
Marz NC that's wild! I doubt we do. Sorry for not understanding the question fully as I did not even know that it was a thing. So I missed the automated part in your question.
No problem. My sense is that automated snowmaking is much more prevalent in Europe and along the east coast. Don't really know what types of snowmaking systems are installed along the west coast.

When Wintergreen in VA installed a fully automated snowmaking system, they made a big deal about it from a marketing standpoint. There are webcams positioned so that it's possible to what all the guns so on at the same time if looking at the right time. That was back in 2002. So in the southeast and mid-Atlantic, it's old news. I was wondering if other regions had also made the investment in recent years.

https://www.wintergreenresort.com/SNOWPOWER/

My home mountain in VA, Massanutten, started adding automation 5-6 years ago. The base depths they can achieve with relatively short windows of cold temps are noticeably deeper than before. Adding to the water supply was equally important but came later.
 

SarahXC

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Cataloochee (NC) is heavily automated (since 2005 or so from what I can tell) and invests a lot in their snowmaking since there is really any natural snow to speak of here. This article details some of the projects that have helped the season go from 80-90 days 20 years ago to 130 days now. According to this 80% of the melt is captured and returned to the ski area’s holding ponds.

https://www.blueridgeoutdoors.com/snowsports/the-secrets-of-snowmaking/?amp
 

npskihappy

Certified Ski Diva
Mammoth here and just like UT our snow was horrible until this week! Mammoth makes snow to hopefully open in November and kept on making it to keep it open until there is more more. This year it was super important with poor conditions most of January. They actually have it all over the bottom of the mountain and move from area to are to open new territory!
 

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