SNOWMAKING ARTICLES

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  May 2026

  Maximizing Every Flake

  When winter doesn’t deliver on schedule, ski areas adapt surface management strategies to get open and stay open. In case you hadn’t heard, a prolonged snow drought started early in the season and led to delayed openings for most ski areas in the West. According to a March report from the Na When winter doesn’t deliver on schedule, ski areas adapt surface management strategies to get open and...

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  March 2026

  Betting on Snow?

  More snowmaking after a snow drought? By mid-February, winter in the West felt upside down. Rain had fallen at destination resorts in Colorado and Utah on Christmas Day. In parts of Oregon and California, snowpack hovered at less than half of normal. Across the region, ski areas opened late, opera More snowmaking after a snow drought?

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  March 2026

  Storing Snow Through the Summer

  Once an oddity, storing snow from one season to the next is becoming a viable strategy. By the time the mound of snow at Boise’s Bogus Basin was uncovered near the Easy Rider conveyor lift in early October, the pile had endured summer surface temperatures of 119 degrees. Before it spent six stra Once an oddity, storing snow from one season to the next is becoming a viable strategy.

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  November 2025

  Go Time: Early Season Snowmaking

  The right equipment, a well-aligned plan, and an engaged team help resorts get open quickly and efficiently. Snow guns roared on Copper Mountain’s Oh No Bowl, blanketing the upper reaches of the Colorado resort in white ahead of the U.S. Ski Team’s first day of downhill training. It was Octobe The right equipment, a well-aligned plan, and an engaged team help resorts get open quickly and...

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  July 2025

  Getting Trails Ready for Winter

  It pays to do work during the summer so trails can open with less snow come winter. In the last decade or so, no aspect of mountain operations has been more completely transformed by new technology than snow management. LiDAR mapping combined with sophisticated grooming software has enabled groome It pays to do work during the summer so trails can open with less snow come winter.

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  May 2025

  Adopting Automation

  How two ski areas took the leap into automated snowmaking, and what the results have shown. In response to increasingly fickle snowmaking windows and rising energy and labor costs, Mountain Creek, N.J., and Giants Ridge, Minn., invested heavily to introduce automation to their snowmaking systems a How two ski areas took the leap into automated snowmaking, and what the results have shown.