Laying it down, so you can rip. Thanks to aggressive snowmaking you could ride in So Cal before Halloween and hopefully through Thanksgiving and the end of this season.  

Spencer Link takes advantages of some big mounds of snow formed into the shape of jumps that would not exist without snowmaking

You probably don’t think too much about snowmaking, unless you are riding while the snowmakers are on and blasting you in the face. Whether you take man’s ability to re create snow for granted or not, chances are if you snowboard, uh, anywhere except maybe Mount Baker or the backcountry that you are not only riding on but dependant on snowmaking. Even big mountains with big natural snowfalls like say Jackson Hole use snowmaking to put down a heavy base on the high traffic areas like the run out at the base. In low snow years even traditional big snowfall resorts will have runs open, only because of snowmaking. In Southern California snowmaking is mandatory, sure some years it dumps but more often you are riding on man made snow. Resorts in So Cal, on the edge of the desert, can lay down enough snow to open top to bottom runs before Halloween, as was the case this year at Mountain High. A good base helps ensure that the season runs until April as well, so how does it all get there.

The snowmaking guys work through the night  

 Water

 Water is the key ingredient and most resorts get theirs from a reservoirs. East Coast resorts usually receive a lot of rainfall in the summer and build reservoirs that can collect rain. Mountain High is located in So Cal which is known for it’s sun, luckily for Mountain High they can pump water from wells and get water up to their main reservoirs at the top of the mountains. Other resorts can use other natural sources; lakes, rivers, snow melt, rain…you get the idea. Mountain High does also collect rainwater and snow melt too. It is all regulated. The Forest Service, EPA, FBI, CIA, USSA, Boy Scouts, NBA all have rules for about every step from water consumption to emissions. Mountain High slowly pumps out the water all year and if they use all of their allotted water, they are out so it is not a wild west situation with all the water being used up. Not to mention, most of the water runs back off into the ground anyway. So the water gets pumped from wells and up to the reservoirs. From the reservoir it gets pumped into the snowmaking system

These pumps do the jobs of pumping water into the reservoir for storage and pumping it out as well. The water for Mountain High come from wells

This is the reservoir at the top of Mountain High West, the sprinkler looking things can circulate the water to cool it as the sun heats the surface

These pumps pump water into the snowmaking system; the last mechanical thing the water sees before it mixes with water to become snow

   Air

 The majority of snowmakers are simple machines, simply turn on a valve that lets water into it and open a valve that allows pressurized air in and voila - snow. To get the air into the pressurized system is the hard part. Mountain High runs diesel generators to create electricity, which in turn run air compressors that pump air into the system. Actually it is simple except the scale at which they do this. So when you see a guy at a resort running around covered in snow, he is likely turning off or on the snowmakers. The manual snow guns are simple and cost effective, so they account for the majority of snow guns but more labor intensive to turn and off than the automatic fan guns

On to the air. These diesel engines are each connected to a generator that creates electricity. The generator has a 4 on it you can see the power box on top of the generator

Twelve cylinders, 2000 horsepower of Caterpillar diesel power. If you look close you can see the air intake, the exhaust and the green tube has water in it to cool the engine. There are a bunch of engines cranking out power

These are cooling towers; like the radiator to your car, they cool the engines

The generated electricity run these giant air compressors which push air into the 100’s of miles of pipes, which in turn mixes with the water and creates snow

This is a portable sled gun. Notice the water hose and air hose entering the “gun”

Night snow supervisor Eric gives you a pre dawn look at how 500 hydrants get turned on and off

After a night of snowmaking

Cory Cronk utilizing snowmaking

More poles than a porno. In this photo you can see tower guns and their connection to the hydrant

Here is a self contained fan gun at work - just add water

A Super Pole Cat tower fan. You can see the weather station. These things, literally run themselves

 A tower fan at work

Snowmaking crew is one of the harder jobs on the mountain

Lot’s of snowmaking machines blowing hard so you can shred. Thanks to the crew at Mountain High for the tour!

 Mountain High runs 2 shifts of snowmaking; the day crew and the night crew. The schedules vary but a 12 hour shift from 7 am to 7 pm and a 12 hour shift from 7 pm to 7 am is fairly normal. 8-10 guys work each shift at peak season. If they are not making snow, they are kept busy fixing pipes, prepping the slopes, doing maintenance at the resort and so on, they are not playing Nintendo Wii, ever. The Mountain High staff maintains and runs one of the larger snowmaking systems in the US with a system that includes 500 hydrants, which run a few types of manually operated snowmakers; sled guns, tower guns and stick guns. Three hundred of the snowguns are mounted on towers which means quicker times to cover multiple runs. Sled guns are just like tower guns but portable. all 500 hydrants are turned off and on manually. In addition to the “guns” there are fan snow blowers. Fan snow blowers are self contained units, all they need is water, they each have their own air compressor. Of the fan type there is also a tower mounted fully automated fan that each has it’s own weather center and can determine the wet bulb temperature and turn itself on and off. There are obvious advantages to a fan gun and the drawback is that they cost $18,000 - $20,000 each. Mountain High has 19 fan guns. Without snowmaking, many resorts would be dead in the water in the early season or out of business. According to James Renick, who has been in the industry since 1980, the snowfalls come later in the year in So Cal. They used to come in November/December, now it is more like January/February. Not to mention snowboarders are always amped to get an early start to the season. Even though winter is coming later, if the conditions are right snowmaking allows you to ride from before Halloween until April, or later. So if you don’t thank the snow gods you can thank the hardworking snowmaking crew, wherever you ride (Except Baker)