THE WHITE STUFF
Snowmaking Allows Midwest Ski Areas to Open Early, Stay Open Late
For photos to illustrate
story, click here>
Dan Raedeke may be president of Minnesota's Wild Mountain, but because snowmaking is so important to his ski area-and every Midwest ski area-he is on the hill helping to make snow anytime the snow guns are operating. "Without snowmaking, there wouldn't be ski areas in the Midwest," says Raedeke, who has been making snow for nearly 40 years. "It used to be a big deal to be open at all by Thanksgiving. Now, if it stays below 28 degrees so we can make snow, we want to be 100 percent open by Thanksgiving."
Combining air and water to make snow is sometimes a science, sometimes an art-and always special for Midwest skiers and snowboarders, who wouldn't be able to enjoy their sport without it. Each fall, as soon as the temperature drops below 28 degrees, hundreds of snowmakers like Raedeke are poised to begin covering the slopes of more than 100 Midwest ski areas with machine-made snow. This traditionally allows Midwest areas to open by Thanksgiving or early December, have a reliable base throughout the season and stay open later into the spring.
As Dave Rudisell, who has been making snow at Indiana's Perfect North Slopes for more than 20 years, says: "If we don't have snow on the hill, we don't have a ski area. It's our No. 1 priority." David Thomas, who has more than a quarter-century of experience at Minnesota's Hyland Ski Area, agrees. "You have to have snow," he says. "No snow, no go."
There are several different types of snowguns, but they are all based on the same principle. After the guns break water into small particles, the particles are cooled as they move rapidly through cold air, become nucleated and form snow crystals. In many ways, machine-made snow is actually more desirable than the natural stuff for a ski area. Ten inches of natural snow, when it is packed, adds only about an inch to the snow base at a ski area, while 10 inches of machine-made snow adds about seven inches of base because it is more dense and durable. Machine-made snow packs down better, is easier to groom and lasts longer.
"It's like a cake," says Raedeke from Wild Mountain. "You make your cake, your base, with machine-made snow. Then you get some natural snow, which is a lighter, smaller crystal, and that's your frosting on top."
"The art of snowmaking is making sure you have consistent coverage and making a game plan that takes into account the long-range forecast for temperatures and wind direction," says Thomas. "You always need to be aware of your environment and where you're blowing the snow. Is it blowing on the ski slope or into the trees or the parking lot?" Thomas once learned the hard way that a southwest wind will cause snow to drift several miles to the Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport. "It was icing up airplanes and the police came and shut us down."
At Perfect North Slopes in Indiana, more than 200 tower-mounted snowguns are ready each fall to start blanketing the area's 80 acres with snow as soon as the temperature dips below 28 degrees. A crew of 10 works around the clock, weather permitting. "We start when it's 28 degrees," says Rudisell. "But at 20 degrees, we can have the whole area open in 48 hours with about a six-inch base." In general, the colder it gets, the more snow ski areas can make. A rule of thumb is that for every 10-degree temperature drop, snowmakers can double the output of machine-made snow.
Snowmakers always have their customers in mind-because they are usually skiers or snowboarders themselves. "Early in the year, we're going for quantity, making wetter, denser snow to build up the base," says Thomas. "Once we're open, keep it a dryer, lighter consistency on top of that base." Agrees Rudisell: "Quantity first and then quality." Most days, after a long night making snow, Rudisell will head home and sleep. "But about a dozen times a winter, I'll stay and ski on the fresh snow I just made." At Wild Mountain, Raedeke does quality control by trying to make at least one run every day.
After Midwest ski areas build up a snow base of eight to 10 feet-and up to 20 feet for half-pipes and high-traffic areas-any natural snow is a bonus. "We always like natural snow because it's soft, makes our area look like a postcard and fires up our skiers and snowboarders," says Scott Stillings of Nub's Nob in Michigan. "They see the snow in their backyards, and they get psyched."
A deep, consistent base of machine-made snow allows Midwest ski areas to stay open later in the spring. Many areas traditionally stay open until late March, while some are able to extend their season well into April because of deep snow bases. They include Lutsen and Giants Ridge in Minnesota, Nub's Nob, Crystal Mountain, Boyne Mountain and Boyne Highlands in Michigan, and Ski Brule and Indianhead in Michigan's Upper Peninsula.
There are several types of snowguns:
--Low pressure, fan-type snowguns mix small amounts of compressed
air with water to help it freeze as it is shot into the atmosphere.
These are most common in the Midwest.
--Air/Water snowguns use higher pressure air from air pipes to
break the water into molecules that are shot from the snowguns.
--Airless "water stick" snowguns that work like sprinklers. They simply shoot
high pressure water out of the nozzles. With enough hang time,
the water micro-particles fall to the ground as snow.
For more information on Midwest ski areas and to find a ski area near you, visit snowplaces.com.
For more information on snowmaking, visit these sites:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snowmaking
http://www.science.howstuffworks.com/snow-maker.htm
http://www.inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blsnow.htm
|
