This winter, Mount Washington Alpine Resort has been testing two different types of snow guns, taking the first steps in a multi-phase plan to bring snowmaking to the resort.
For this season, Mount Washington has two snow guns on site in the beginner area (Easy Acres): an SMI super pole cat and a Techno Alpin TA 40 fan gun.
These snowmaking machines break water into smaller particles, cool the water by causing these small particles to move through cold air, nucleate the water particles and distribute the resulting snow on a surface.
Mount Washington first tested snowmaking on Jan. 3, and Don Sharpe, the director of business operations and marketing, says they prefer the SMI super pole cat so far.
“It was very exciting the two times we have made snow,” said Sharpe. “It’s been fun to watch it happening. The first day we ran it for 15 hours and it created a pile of snow four feet deep, 50 feet wide by 50 feet wide.”
“So it works,” he said with a laugh.
These snow guns can run during the day and people can ski through them – Sharpe says it’s like skiing in a snowstorm.
Snowmaking is a key initiative introduced by Mount Washington Alpine Resort’s new owners, Pacific Group Resorts Inc. from Park City, Utah.
“With our new owners, they come from the resorts in the States, where they have three other locations that are very dependent on snowmaking,” said Sharpe. “So part of the whole thing is it gives you the ability to ensure an opening date and it also allows you to fill holes or gaps that you might have throughout the course of the season. That definitely helps to make sure you have confidence for your staff and your customers.”
At Mount Washington, snowmaking will be phased in over a number of years. They will start with the beginner area (Easy Acres) and move to the night ski area in Phase 2. Sharpe says they plan to cover “a significant amount of terrain” in the next five to six years.
In doing this, he notes they will create additional jobs in both the initial construction phase and also annual operation and maintenance.
Snowmaking will help to ensure a consistent annual opening date, will ensure coverage on many high-traffic areas, will supplement natural snowfall as required and can be used to improve snow conditions during icy or “freeze/thaw” conditions, says Sharpe.
“Snowmaking has become a critical aspect of mountain resort operations worldwide, highly appreciated – and even expected – by beginners and professionals alike,” he said.
Sharpe says the ideal temperature and conditions for snowmaking are between -5C and -10C, with low humidity.
In perfect conditions and with a built-out system, Sharpe says they would need 200,000 gallons of water to make one foot of snow over one acre of terrain. To put that into perspective, the beginner area at Mount Washington is five acres.
Water is stored on site, and Sharpe says they have a number of permitted areas across the mountain that they may use in the future.
Currently, Mount Washington is storing five million gallons of water that can be used for snowmaking in its reservoir.
“For this year, we’ve used stored water from our reservoir,” said Sharpe. “We have one reservoir, it’s close to the Sunrise chair, and that’s where the water will come from for the snowmaking. As we expand, we’ll expand our reservoirs as well.”
There are no chemicals added to the water and the water used for snowmaking is not consumed
“We are repurposing the water to make snow and the same water will melt off and become normal spring melt,” said Sharpe. “It is ultimately re-released slowly later in the year, which benefits spring and summer flows downstream from our property.”
Sharpe is looking forward to moving forward with the snowmaking.
“It’s going to be very cool,” he said. “Seeing it work has been very positive.”
