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Would you want to be a snowmaker?

marzNC

Angel Diva
Check out this documentary about Plattekill Mountain’s snow makers.
Wow! Thanks for posting! I missed this when it came out last month.

Plattekill is a great little mountain. Seeing the Torchlight Parade from the March Winterfest was a bonus. As Mack stated, it's really about "snow farming" because what Mother Nature provides during a given week, month, or for the whole season is a huge unknown. Snowmaking and grooming can only help so much, but really do make a huge difference when conditions are favorable.
 

ski diva

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


Lovely, ilovepugs. I was just going to post that myself and saw you already had. Beautifully done.
 

marzNC

Angel Diva
Found a good introduction to snowmaking. It's a generic explanation that's not by a ski resort or a company that makes snowmaking equipment.

https://adventure.howstuffworks.com/outdoor-activities/snow-sports/snow-maker.htm

Regardless of the type of equipment used, some resorts are adding Snowmax to the water supply increase the output for a given amount of water and electricity. However, the use of Snowmax is not without controversy even though it's been around for about 20 years. Just as some people aren't excited about the idea of using treated waste water for snowmaking.
 

marzNC

Angel Diva
Here's a glimpse into snowmaking without any automation, including connecting and moving around hoses. Camden Snowbowl is a small ski area about 3.5 hours drive north of Boston that is run as a recreation area by the town. There is a double and a triple that were installed in 2014 and 2015. Camden Snowbowl has the only ski slopes with a view of the Atlantic Ocean and opened in 1939.

 

marzNC

Angel Diva
Found notes about the history of snowmaking with an emphasis on Killington and the northeast in general. 1956 was the year several places started snowmaking in earnest. By 1958 there were 18 ski areas of 104 in New England and New York that listed snowmaking. Everett Kircher of Boyne Resorts in Michigan invented a snowgun in the 1950s but let SMI handle snowmaking while he continued to focus on operating Boyne Mountain and other ski resorts.

https://newenglandskimuseum.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/snowmaking_timeline.pdf
 

marzNC

Angel Diva
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.
Sunday River is continuing the emphasis on snowmaking that Everett Kircher had from the beginning at Boyne Mountain. Now that Boyne Resorts is once again the owner and operator, major work began in Summer 2018 that will eventually double the snowmaking capability at SR.

https://sundayriver.blog/2018/07/20/taking-the-first-step-toward-doubling-snowmaking/

"This summer, Sunday River is taking the first step toward doubling the resort’s snowmaking capability. You read that right — doubling our snowmaking.

We’re replacing the pipeline that feeds water from the Sunday River up to our snowmaking pump house at the base of Barker Mountain with nearly two miles of newly-engineered ductile iron high-pressure pipe. This new pipe will give us the ability to push significantly more water into our snowmaking system.

With the new pipeline in place as the first phase of our snowmaking expansion, we’re also adding a new 600-horsepower pump at the river. The new pump will give us a 15% boost in snowmaking capacity for the 2018-19 season. We expect the project to be completed by the end of the summer — in plenty of time for our annual snowmaking test and getting prepped for early season skiing and riding.

In the coming years, we’ll continue increasing pumping capacity and expanding our on-mountain infrastructure to allow us to make twice as much as much snow as we can today. Our current on-mountain infrastructure includes over 2,000 snowguns, 80 miles of on-mountain pipe, and 2,200 hydrant stations.

All of this is to say that Sunday River will be able to make more snow, more quickly than ever before, and we’ll continue to provide the most dependable snow in New England. And you know what that means? Amazing conditions, guaranteed."
 

Live4Powder

Certified Ski Diva
When I went to work at 6:30 am as a lift operator I'd watch the snow cats come in as the sun rose and they would be going out as the sun set as I left for home. I love 'em but I wouldn't want to be one of them.
 
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marzNC

Angel Diva
One reason Killington is confident about getting Superstar ready for WC races during Thanksgiving week is that they still have 200 K-3000 snow guns. The K-3000 was invented at Kton back in the 1980s. It uses a lot of electricity but can operate more effectively in somewhat warmer temperatures than even snow guns from more recent years. The design was patented in 1988 but new ones haven't been made for quite a while.

Kton rents a bunch of extra air compressors to get the snowmaking started in October.


For more about the K-3000:

Tribute: K-3000 Snow Gun

"[This article formed a blog post on killington.com and a slightly shortened version appeared in the 2018 edition of 4242 Magazine, an annual publication of Killington Resort with a circulation of 130,000.]

Like a fine wine, this workhorse just gets better with age

by Dave Young

When Killington Resort successfully hosted the 2016 Audi FIS Ski World Cup at the end of an unseasonably warm and snowless November, it was an accomplishment made all the sweeter by the fact that Killington was the only resort in North America that could have hosted the event that weekend; there was simply not enough snow anywhere else. That Killington’s Superstar was the lone trail on the continent to feature a World Cup-worthy surface that late-November weekend came down to several factors. Sure, there was a little bit of luck involved, but you could also say that Killington’s Mountain Operations Team made its own luck, through hard work, smart strategy, and applying the right tool for the job. In that particular case, the right tool happened to be a slightly obscure piece of 1980s snowmaking technology known as the K-3000.

Few outside the tightly-knit community of professional snowmakers have heard of the K-3000, and fewer still know that it was developed right here at Killington Resort. But inside the offices and planning rooms of Killington’s mountain operations complex, the K-3000 is spoken of in reverential tones. As Jon Kuehn, a veteran Killington Snowmaking Foreman who worked on the World Cup snow told me, “there’s no other snowgun like the K-3000, and no other snowgun I’d want to use under the tough conditions we faced before the World Cup.”

Slavko Stanchak is the man behind the venerable K-3000. A mechanical engineer who started working in Killington’s Research and Development department in 1978, Stanchak built the first K-3000 prototype in the department’s machine shop in 1983. According to Stanchak, the K-3000 had two characteristics that made it unique at the time. “It was designed to run at a higher water pressure than its predecessors, about 350 psi, and it was the first snowgun designed with a field-adjustable nozzle to accommodate temperature and humidity changes.”
. . ."
 

marzNC

Angel Diva
A video from 2014 for Wachusett near Boston. First one I've found that includes how flames are used to keep equipment from freezing.

 

marzNC

Angel Diva
The SAM contest for I AM A SNOWMAKER has opened voting for 2019. Two of the places I'm skiing at this season are included. The Wildcat team chose "lean, mean, machine" for their three words. Taos went with "adventurous, dedicated, passionate." Pretty sure Sunday River was a winner previously. The videos are 2-3 min long.

https://www.saminfo.com/headline-news/9238-voting-begins-for-the-hkd-i-am-a-snowmaker-contest

SAM Magazine—Natick, Mass., Jan. 4, 2019—Voting for HKD’s I Am a Snowmaker contest opens today and continues through Monday, Jan. 14. Started in the winter of 2013-14, the contest highlights the hard work, determination and camaraderie of snowmakers, and recognizes how critical they are to the success of our industry.HNIamVote

Six teams were chosen in October 2018 to move forward with the contest and create compelling videos showcasing their snowmaking team’s hard work as they prepared the slopes for the winter season.

The six teams competing for best snowmaking crew are
Mammoth Mountain, Calif.;
Mont-Sainte-Anne, Quebec;
Mount Sunapee, N.H.;
Panorama Mountain Resort, B.C.;
Taos Ski Valley, N.M.; and
Wildcat Mountain, N.H.
They were chosen from a competitive group of submissions for their passion and dedication to snowmaking and to the mountain resort industry.

Each team has submitted a team photo, three words to describe themselves, names of the snowmaking crew, and a produced video. To view the profiles, videos, and to vote, please visit: www.saminfo.com/i-am-a-snowmaker.
 

marzNC

Angel Diva
SAM Magazine—Natick, Mass., Jan. 4, 2019—Voting for HKD’s I Am a Snowmaker contest opens today and continues through Monday, Jan. 14. Started in the winter of 2013-14, the contest highlights the hard work, determination and camaraderie of snowmakers, and recognizes how critical they are to the success of our industry.HNIamVote

Six teams were chosen in October 2018 to move forward with the contest and create compelling videos showcasing their snowmaking team’s hard work as they prepared the slopes for the winter season.
The winner was Sunapee for 2019.
 

marzNC

Angel Diva
Dave Lacombe has been working at Killington since 1978, and became a snow making supervisor in 1985. Needless to say, he knows a lot about the hard work that goes into making snow in Vermont. He's also been responsible for grooming and trail maintenance in general, summer and winter.

Meet Dave Lacombe: Snowsurface Manager - March 2019
 

marzNC

Angel Diva
Building snowmaking infrastructure involves a lot of different elements. Making sure there is a large enough water source is key. Looks like water available has been an issue for Pico. There is going to be a pipeline built from Killington that will double Pico's snowmaking for 2019-20.

Miles of Pipe, New Snowmaking for Pico
Another major announcement is that Killington plans to run nearly three miles of pipe from Killington across the mountains to Pico. “We’ve always had nearly unlimited access to water at Killington, but Pico has relied on snowmaking ponds that can dry up or freeze,” said Solimano. By running a 16,850-foot pipeline across terrain that locals jokingly refer to as the “interconnect” (a vast area between the two ski areas) Pico will be able to double its snowmaking capacity.

At Killington, the company will also replace 12 kilometers of water pipe and add 400 low-energy snowguns and 120 low-energy towers.
 

marzNC

Angel Diva
Been spending some time learning about the ski resorts in Australia lately. Needless to say, snowmaking has become very important. There are only nine ski areas/resorts listed by OnTheSnow for the entire country, including those now on Epic or Ikon/MCP (Perisher, Falls, Hotham, Thredbo, Buller). The season typically starts in early June and runs thru late September, with the season longer than the mid-Atlantic but shorter than New England. (Population of Australia 25 million, Canada 36 million, NY state plus New England about 35 million.)

The future of snow: why machines will have a bigger role to play - August 2017

Mt. Buller made news when they committed to a Snow Factory set up a year or two ago. They added a mini Snow Factory for the 2019 season. That's the system that allows snow making in relatively warm temperatures because the snow is made essentially in a frig and then a snow pile builds up outside.

Turns out that Mt. Baw Baw, and perhaps Selwyn, also have a Snow Factory. Baw Baw is using the Snow Factory to make sure their "toboggan run" is open during early season. Even have a magic carpet to make it easier to get back to the top for the next sled ride. Apparently that's become a unique feature because other Aussie ski resorts opted to ban tobogganing (sledding).

Thredbo and Perisher are the largest ski resorts. They are relatively close to each other and very much direct competitors. Much like Stowe and Sugarbush in Vermont.

Thredbo has the most vertical in Australia. Of the 1186 acres, about 300 acres has snowmaking. It's been on the MCP since 2015.

Perisher was the first Aussie ski resort bought by Vail Resorts. It's has just over 3000 skiable acres but only 130 acres with snowmaking. Fair to say that with the financial backing of VR since 2015, improvements in snowmaking infrastructure are planned. Perisher reminds me of Park City. It has multiple peaks and became a single resort in the last few decades by combining neighboring resorts.

https://www.perisher.com.au/resort-info/mountain-operations/9-resort-information/86-snowmaking
Screen Shot 2019-06-16 at 4.11.34 PM.png
 

marzNC

Angel Diva
Adding snowmaking is happening everywhere. Vail Mountain started a multi-year snowmaking expansion project during Summer 2019 after getting Forest Service approval in April 2019. The long-term goal is to go just over 400 acres to almost 700 acres with snowmaking. That's out of about 5000 skiable acres. The objective is to be able to set opening and closing dates well in advance that are reliable with enough trails open to keep visitors from out of state happy.

https://blog.vail.com/vail-mountain-snowmaking-expansion-project-re-imagining-early-season/
 

marzNC

Angel Diva
Good to see there are still small mountains that are finding a niche and money to get snowmaking to the needed level. West Mountain near Albany emerged with new owners after almost going bankrupt in 2013. $2 million for snowmaking infrastructure was invested in 2018. That bought 100 new stick guns and 50 fan guns, plus new high powered pumps. West has a bit over 100 acres with snowmaking and a strong focus on racing and after school programs for kids.

https://poststar.com/business/local...cle_7fc6c641-0040-559d-9155-06eb3179af0f.html
 

marzNC

Angel Diva
Killington is known for long seasons, the longest in the northeast. Snowmaking going all the way back Kton's first years is a key factor. The man in charge of "snow surfaces" has been working at Kton for over 30 years, most of the time with snowmaking. Dave LaCombe became the snowmaking supervisor in 1985, a couple years after the K-3000 snow gun was invented at Kton. There are still 200 K-3000 guns in use because they put out more snow than pretty much any other snow gun in a greater range of temperature and humidity. That's critical when prepping SuperStar for World Cup racing held during Thanksgiving.

https://mountaintimes.info/meet-dave-lacombe-snowsurface-manager/
 

marzNC

Angel Diva
Missed the articles last fall about the new snowmaking system at Bogus Basin. The total price tag for Phase 1 was $6 million. The non-profit did a capital campaign in 2017 and permits were issued in early 2018. The project included not only new pipelines, pumps, and snow guns, but also construction of a 13 million gallon holding pond that's 50 ft deep. They opted to get 24 big portable fan guns on wheels. The idea is to cover a frontside groomer top-to-bottom and them move on to another trail. Once there is a base on a trail, don't usually have to worry too much about melting in late Dec in Idaho.

Sep 2018, Idaho Statesman
Here’s how Bogus Basin will make snow – and where its new ‘lake’ will be

The goal is to assure that Bogus has trails open for the Christmas holidays even if there isn't much snowfall in December. Bogus has 2600 acres and 25,000 season pass holders but clearly local families are happy with whatever is available during the school winter break. Missing out a week in Dec can means losing $1 million in revenue.
 

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