No white, no green. That’s a basic mantra of operating a ski area successfully—no snow on the hill means no money in the till. And that’s where snowmaking comes in, especially in the early season and particularly in winters like 2011-2012, when a shortage of natural snow stretched well into the heart of the ski season. If nothing else, this season’s weather and climate challenges have helped reveal the range of possible solutions.

There are now at least 10 companies producing a broad selection of snowmaking artillery, with the choice of weaponry varying considerably according to the unique challenges presented by any particular installation. Temperature, humidity, wind, trail configuration, energy conservation, manpower, snow quality, water source and quality, cost, and any number of other variables can factor into a system’s effectiveness—and the ski area’s decision to choose a particular array. We look at a half-dozen or so installations here; we will profile another half-dozen in the May issue of SAM.


WHITETAIL: SUCCESS ON THE MARGIN
Let’s start in the mid-Atlantic region, where creating a reliable early-season snowpack can be a challenge even in the best of winters. Whitetail, in Mercersburg, Pa., was unable to open this past winter until early January, due to warm early-season temps, according to service manager Andy Goshorn. When the warm weather finally relented, the Whitetail crew threw everything it had at the mountain, enabling the resort to open 45 percent of its terrain by the second week in January.

Goshorn admits to going essentially into “desperation mode to defeat nature,” at times being forced to run some guns at 600 cfm of air. Key tools in Whitetail’s arsenal were Areco fan guns, installed two years ago, with as many as 300 tiny nozzles in each. “Any of the guns with 300 nozzles outperformed (the others) in producing quality snow,” says Goshorn.

Ed Dietzel of Snownet/Areco says that the variety of nozzle configurations on the small-nozzle guns gives operators “more controllability.” These nozzles typically produce a finer particle, able to crystallize more quickly in marginal temperatures.

Dietzel concedes, however, that the successful use of Areco small-nozzle guns is dependent on particular characteristics of the water supply. For example, he says, “when the water temperature approaches freezing, you can have the adverse effect of slush build-up on the nozzles.” So warmer water is essential. In addition, a clean water source—through relatively new, uncontaminated piping—is necessary to avoid frequent cleaning or maintenance. A filtration system can combat dirty water, too, but that adds to the overall cost of the installation. As Whitetail found, though, that can be a small price to pay when snow is dear.


MT. ST. LOUIS MOONSTONE: IT’S AUTOMATIC
Cost, of course, is a critical consideration for all ski areas, especially smaller ones with smaller budgets, when it comes to installing new snowmaking equipment. That’s why Geir Vik of TechnoAlpin insists that small-area operators need “a good vision for the future in making a long-term investment in snowmaking. Smaller places tend to think they can’t afford it, but they need to think in a four-year payoff plan.”

One smaller area that has made the investment in automation is Mount St. Louis Moonstone, a 175-acre resort about an hour and 15 minutes north of Toronto. On a busy weekend day, the 550-vertical foot hill can host 5,000 skiers, so it is essential to keep as much terrain open as possible.

Mount St. Louis began with 28 York guns in 2007 and supplemented that installation last year with the addition of 35 automated TechnoAlpin guns, a combination of lances and towers. According to Robert Huter, Mount St. Louis’s general manager and owner, the prime benefit of automation has been the savings in manpower. While crews are still necessary to keep an eye on any snowmaking event, Huter says that the ski area has been able to reduce each snowmaking shift by one person—a significant savings over the course of the season.

In addition, automation can help an operator to maximize snowmaking efforts when weather conditions are optimal and minimize snowmaking when fluctuating energy rates are prohibitive. At a relatively low elevation close to the Great Lakes, high humidity and shifting winds are particularly noteworthy variables at Mount St. Louis. With the system currently in place, says Huter, the area can “run (snowmaking guns) for an hour, then shut down” as meteorological conditions or energy rates change. Vik estimates that the capital start-up costs for a system like this can typically be recouped in about four or five years through operational savings.


COPPER MOUNTAIN: WORLD CLASS
Low elevation and high humidity are certainly not problems for snowmakers at Copper Mountain in Colorado. With a base elevation above 9,600 feet, Copper has long made enough snow, starting in late September or early October, to support a “comprehensive early-season race-training program,” says Copper president Gary Rodgers. Several national teams have taken advantage of this program.

Early last summer, however, Copper and the U.S. Ski Team decided to take race training to another level by creating a 9,500-foot-long, 2,300-vertical-foot early-season speed-training venue for the U.S. Ski Team. Because of the course length required for downhill and super-G training, U.S. speed-event skiers were more or less out of luck once training sessions in the Southern Hemisphere end each summer. So the Ski Team turned to HKD (now “the official snowmaker of the U.S. Ski Team”) to create the special training venue at Copper.

The snowmaking tool of choice was HKD’s 30-foot-tall four-stage SV10 Impulse tower gun, with an installation involving 87 guns in pods of approximately 25 guns each. Rodgers says that he was particularly “impressed with the simplicity of the valves and units.”

The advantages of HKD’s tall tower guns were the combination of low energy consumption (“reducing compressed-air energy by 90 percent,” says HKD President Charles Santry) and the long throw necessary for a wide competition trail.

While the system is fully automated—it can be controlled by either a base-area computer or a cell phone—HKD also touts the versatility of having a manual override on each gun. That feature enabled Copper to turn on guns at the top of the mountain before the guns at the bottom of the run had been installed.

Over the course of the 20-year-deal between Copper and the Ski Team, the training venue will be open from Nov.1 to Dec. 10, and open to public skiing thereafter. Rodgers says that while the snow held up to the demands of race training during its inaugural season, it was still of a quality that allowed a conversion to recreational skiing with only minimal touch-up.


VERMONT AND UTAH: STATES OF EFFICIENCY
The low-energy consumption of tower guns is a theme, of course, that reappears throughout the ski-area world. Not only do low-energy installations reduce operating costs, many states have rebate programs to help ski areas with the capital costs of converting to lower-energy alternatives. That, says Ron Ratnik, president of Ratnik Industries, is the biggest story in the snowmaking world right now.

In Vermont, ski areas that can demonstrate the improved efficiency of new installations can earn rebates from Efficiency Vermont through a contract with the state government. To take advantage of the program, Sugarbush has been steadily overhauling its snowmaking system, not only with new, more efficient Ratnik guns but also with older, retrofitted Ratnik guns that, according to Sugarbush’s chief administrative officer Hardy Merrill, use 20 percent less compressed air than they did originally. While other companies offer low-energy guns in their lineups, Merrill likes the Ratniks for their easy mobility.

The installation of the new and retrofitted guns has, indeed, earned Sugarbush a rebate from Efficiency Vermont. Perhaps more important, however, was the reduction in operating costs. In 2006, the last year Sugarbush was similarly challenged with marginal early-season conditions, the area was forced to rent eight auxiliary diesel compressors. With the move to lower-energy guns, no additional compressors were necessary this season, resulting in rental and fuel savings of up to a half million dollars, according to Merrill.

Also in Sugarbush’s revamped arsenal are guns from the upstart Utah company Snow Logic. Now in its second year, Snow Logic is perking interest with guns that can produce snow at compressed-air rates as low as 5 cfm. According to company president Mitch Dodson, both Deer Valley (30 guns) and Park City (25 guns) added Snow Logic fleets to their fleets in the last two seasons after tests at Deer Valley proved the validity of the company’s low-e claims.

Employing what Dodson calls a “dual vector nozzle,” Snow Logic guns are designed to combine the output of a fan gun with the efficiency of a stick. The company claims the guns can put out up to 140 gallons per minute and throw snow up to 50 feet.

Because the technology is so new, the obvious question is: Does it really work? Absolutely, says Alex Driver, snowmaking manager at Park City. “Basically they are free to run, because you are using so little air,” says Driver. Deer Valley snowmaking manager Scott Enos adds that the Snow Logic guns use so little air, it is possible to run more guns at one time and “open up so much more terrain more quickly.” He adds, “The throw is quite good for the amount of energy they use. Quite impressive.” And he speaks from experience; Deer Valley has been a kind of “R&D facility” for Snow Logic.

The guns aren’t without limitations. Both Enos and Driver say they aren’t as effective as some other guns when conditions are marginal, and they don’t do especially well in crosswinds. However, Snow Logic continues to tweak the design, and Driver reports that in newer versions “the changed nucleation handles the wind better.” Still, he says, Snow Logic guns are probably not the tool of choice in an environment where crosswinds are common.

Snowmaking remains a mix of art and science, but the range of equipment, and the growing sophistication and efficiency of the individual guns, is giving resort snowmakers more tools for their bag of tricks.



In the May issue of SAM, we will look at more exemplary installations.