Would you want to be a snowmaker?

[Fluffy Kitty]

Pretty impressive! Still, if there are reservoirs and chemicals and diversions involved, this rekindles my fear that ski slopes look suspiciously like golf courses, which I know are environmental disasters in many places. How do we know when we are going too far? Climate change is surely going to bless some places, but more resorts will need extraordinary measures soon.

 

[marzNC]

Pretty impressive! Still, if there are reservoirs and chemicals and diversions involved, this rekindles my fear that ski slopes look suspiciously like golf courses, which I know are environmental disasters in many places. How do we know when we are going too far? Climate change is surely going to bless some places, but more resorts will need extraordinary measures soon.

I don't think snowmaking has anything like the same effect as the water use for golf courses. The runoff from taking care of lots of grass with herbicides and extra nutrients is certainly a problem.

Pretty sure that Snowmax (TM) is the only additive used for snowmaking. It's not a chemical. It's pretty hard to describe, but apparently it's actually made from dead bacteria. Found this article in SAM from 2014 about Snowmax that includes the following:

* * *
Snomax is used on ski slopes as an additive to the water used in snowmaking systems and is derived from proteins produced by Pseudomonas syringiae — a microbe found on the leaves of healthy plants all over the world. While it is a natural product that’s 100 per cent biodegradable, Snomax does not contain living microorganisms. The biological material used in Snomax is sterilized, which in turn prevents further growth.

“It’s basically a purified protein that’s been freeze-dried,” says Wayne Palmiter, president and CEO of Snomax International.

The makers of Snomax stress that it’s been used safely and effectively all over the world for decades without a single negative incident. They cite more than 35 independent scientific studies in the United States and several other countries that have concluded that the product poses no threat to human health or the environment.
* * *

 

[Jilly]

Most places that use snowmaking also have a reservoir that the run off goes into first. At Tremblant the little lake in the village is that. It then is filtered as it enters Lac Tremblant. But some of the run off doesn't make it there and ends up in creeks etc (North side for sure.)

 

[marzNC]

Sunday River did the first test of snow guns on 9/22/2015. Article in a local paper said SR has 1900 snow guns. Even at an average price of $10,000 each, that's a lot of investment and that's not including the cost of installing pipes, electric lines, and so on. The cost of snow guns range quite a bit depending on the manufacturer and style of gun.

 

[marzNC]

Pretty sure that Snowmax (TM) is the only additive used for snowmaking. It's not a chemical. It's pretty hard to describe, but apparently it's actually made from dead bacteria. Found this article in SAM from 2014 about Snowmax that includes the following:

Read the rest of the article more carefully. Realized that the source is not SAM. It's actually a website for the Snow Grooming Magazine.

What was interesting to learn is that the other category of additives for snowmaking are surfactants. There is a NY Times articles from 2003 that mentions both Snowmax and a company that sells a popular surfactant product called Drift. Also mentioned that additives for snowmaking were used in Hollywood long before ski resorts were using snow guns.

"One of the earliest snowmaking machines was developed not for ski slopes but for movie making: Russell M. Shearman of North Hollywood, Calif., received a patent for a way of blowing compressed air on water to make snow. He won a special effects Academy Award for the process as it appeared in the 1948 movie ''Portrait of Jennie.''

Before then, set makers had created snow effects by blowing crushed ice. Those flakes looked too artificial, though, as the ice dropped quickly, like hail, rather than floating down gently and photogenically like real snow. Mr. Shearman's favorite additive was a material used in firefighting known as Phomaide, though he noted in his patent that simple baking soda would also work."

 

[Fluffy Kitty]

If I could nerd out for a moment, P. syringae is an interesting organism; it evolved the highly effective ice-nucleation protein so that the ice would form on the surface of a plant, which bursts the plant cells open, which then the germies eat. I remember, in the 80's, someone tried to field-test a strain that was genetically engineered not to do this, to decrease crop damage due to frost; looks like they were never able to market it. P. syringae has also been found to be responsible for a significant amount of cloud formation, so we owe them much more than snowmaking.

So, although P. syringae is technically a plant pathogen, it is, literally, "everywhere", and using its ice-nucleation protein as an additive cannot be adding much to what's already out there. Still, even if it is naturally-occurring, we should at least be thoughtful about spraying our little playgrounds with anti-anti-freeze; I wouldn't feel comfortable spraying the world with anti-freeze, after all. Not to argue that we shouldn't use these, but that we shouldn't do things that make us have to use more of them.

Same with fluorinated waxes, which I love and have been using more and more. So far, their use is limited and so without huge impact on the world, but as the snow gets slushier more times of the year, we will be using more of them.

 

[marzNC]

Sunday River did their first test of the season. What I found more interesting were the numbers in their announcement.

NEWRY, MAINE (September 22, 2015)--Due to last night's frost and this morning's cool temperatures, Sunday River Resort was able to complete a full test of its snowmaking system at daybreak. At 5:00 AM, the resort successfully fired up 40 guns on the T2 trail on Locke Mountain, officially welcoming the approach of the 2015/16 ski season. Sunday River typically opens on or around Halloween.

Sunday River's snowmaking system is the most advanced in the East. The resort owns and operates a total of 1,900 snowguns, including HKD Impulse Tower Guns and Boyne Low-E Fan Guns, allowing it to cover 95 percent of its 135 trails. Last year's snowmaking test fell just days earlier than today, on September 19, 2014, when 29-degree temperatures allowed Sunday River's snowmaking team to fire 32 guns to coat T2, typically the first trail to open each season.

 

[marzNC]

Wildcat in NH made snow for a few days, Oct. 17-19. Check out the video to see how fast trails look skiable. I was at Wildcat last season in early Dec. When you got off the summit lift and went right, the normally blue trail was all snow whales. Made it quite fun because there was several inches of snow on top. Not quite powder, but definitely soft ungroomed snow. The new skinny poles installed for last season are very quiet. They are all along the long green from the summit. Great views of Mt. Washington from that trail.

 

[Fluffy Kitty]

Not quite powder, but definitely soft ungroomed snow.

I like the sound of that!

This video shows the process very clearly. Thank you for posting it!

 

[marzNC]

Ungroomed manmade snow at Wildcat early Dec 2014



On the green trail from the top, I followed an older couple down the first run. The guns were on. I don't think they were expecting that. They were locals and season pass holders so went home after one run. I had fun making first tracks on that trail more than once later in the day as I tried to catch a view of Mt. Washington without a cloud covering the peak. It was cold enough that the new snow wasn't too wet. Since I ski in the southeast, skiing with guns on during the day during early season is normal.

 

[marzNC]

Short video of guys installing a new snowgun on Cupp at Snowshoe. That's one of the two long blacks over on the Western Territories. Apparently the Director of Operations has made a bet that Cupp will be open by Dec. 15 or he will shave his beard. Projected temps for Nov are making it hard to know when snowmaking can start in the southeast.

 

[marzNC]

From the 11/04/15 Breck blog. Interesting to learn they want an 18-inch base. In the southeast, 10-12 inches can be enough to open a trail.

With the ski resort opening in just a few weeks, snowmaking manager Brett Gray and his team of 33 (three shifts of 11 ladies and gents) are diligently working to open three chairlifts, the Springmeier (green) trail top to bottom, Middle 4 O’Clock (blue), Trygves (green) trail and possibly a section of the Park Lane Terrain Park by Nov. 13.

“We’re off to a good start this season with the recent snow,” Gray says. “This week looks pretty optimistic. We call it ‘The Guns of October’ and the troops are ready.”

Gray began his career with Breck in 1983, working his way up the ranks as a lift operator followed by a 15-year ski patrol stint. Today, the snowmaking manager begins his day around 6 a.m., checking in with team leads, addressing mechanical issues, and making terrain rounds, all the while factoring in the forecast and staying ahead of the weather and Breck’s trail opening schedule.

“The weather forecast is always in the back of my mind,” Gray says, noting weather stations at the top, middle and bottom of each of Breck’s peaks. “If conditions are right, we can complete a trail top to bottom about every other day.” Base areas take longer to cover. The goal is to lay down an average of 18 inches of manmade snow on a trail.

 

[Fluffy Kitty]

From the 11/04/15 Breck blog. Interesting to learn they want an 18-inch base. In the southeast, 10-12 inches can be enough to open a trail.

Hmmm... Resorts in Oregon don't open until 36" at the peak, I think, which could be 12" at the base. Last year, they tried to open with something like 12-18", and it was barely skiable.

It could be because the resorts here are all Federal lands? They might have limitations on how much they can alter the ground. That's also why most of them don't have any lodgings at the mountain, Mt Hood being a notable exception, because they have a Fed-owned lodge.

 

[marzNC]

In the southeast, the trails are essentially all groomers that are grass covered during the off season. At Massanutten, the grass gets mowed during the summer. Doesn't take much to have enough coverage for sliding on the top layer of snow.

I've never skied Breck so know nothing about the trails they plan to open first.

 

[Fluffy Kitty]

In the southeast, the trails are essentially all groomers that are grass covered during the off season.

You know, that sounds great. Here 's a photo from Hoodoo today. The bit on the left is a green run called Blue Valley, and as you can see it is covered with a mixture of wild grass, rocks, shrubbery, and small trees. The bit in the middle is a blue run, dotted with larger rocks and taller shrubs. The base is bare dirt, often muddied up. It's probably impossible to maintain mowable grass during the summer, as it hardly rains there in the summer. In the spring, a lot of mud percolates up to the surface of the snow. Hoodoo actually doesn't have any snowmaking equipment, because it doesn't need it most of the time, and because in years like last year, when it rained all winter, there's no point in making snow.

 

[Fluffy Kitty]

Here's a crop of the photo. (Looks like it doesn't show it at full resolution.)

 

[Fluffy Kitty]

Thought it'd be fun to show what it looks like after 4" of snow that fell yesterday.



And snowmaking at Bachelor; not as spectacular as the videos, but available live! (It's where Thunderbird, Tippy Toe, and Canyon merge.)

 

[marzNC]

The latest update for Tenney in NH is about the newly cleaned up snowmaking pond. The capacity is 6.5 million gallons. From the FB update on 11/21/15 and previous updates, it's clear that without someone knowledgeable paying attention it doesn't take long before water supply can become a problem. Apparently there was even a period when debris was dumped into the pond and the claim was made that Tenney did not have enough water to support snowmaking needs.

"This is an Engineered pond design specifically for the purpose of snow making. Neglect over the years caused this pond to have multiple issues. We corrected most but the pond does have some sediment issues caused by poor environmental practices from third party contractors in the recent years. Next spring we'll correct and address the sediment issue which will yield us an addition 300,000 gallons of water per my estimation."

 

[marzNC]

Thinking about a snowmaking pond reminded me that Wintergreen in VA built a 5 million gallon tank to supplement their 100 million gallon pond a few years ago. According to a Wintergreen blog entry from Nov 2013, the existence of the tank allows them to double the amount of snowmaking possible overnight. That's pretty critical for a ski area in the southeast that often less than 30" of natural snow the entire winter. The tank also allowed Wintergreen to pre-cool the water used for snowmaking, which helps during early season or the inevitable Jan thaw.

Wintergreen spent around $6 million dollars over a year or two to enhance snowmaking capacity and capability around 2012. The difference was noticeable.

 

[marzNC]

Besides using a snowmaking pond, water can be drawn from a nearby river. There are usually restrictions about the amount of water that can be drawn by a ski resort. I know that's an issue for Gore in NY because it's in the Adirondack Park.

Sunday River draws from the river for which it's named. From their website:

Water
It sounds impressive when a ski area can claim to cover over 90% of its terrain with snowmaking (assuming they have lots of terrain to start with, of course). But far more relevant to skiers and riders is the amount of snow a ski area can make at one time; this is the only true measure of how fast an area can open new terrain or refresh trails during the season. Since water is the raw material from which snow is made, water supply is a critical determinant in how much snow a ski area can make. Most ski areas are located near the top of a watershed and depend on relatively small water sources, or rely on ponds. Sunday River, on the other hand, is blessed to be located near the bottom of a huge watershed with nearly 43 square miles of drainage. Our water is pulled directly from the Sunday River and is constantly replenished. Our system can currently pump 8,100 gallons per minute from the river to the resort, then can pump the same 8,100 per minute up onto the mountain. If we were to add additional pumping capacity, we are permitted to draw up to 50,000 gallons per minute from the river. Once the snow melts in the spring, it returns to the same watershed and river.