Snowmaking Glory
Jan 18, 2024
Snowmakers delight as we've blanketed our resort in snowmaking from West to East covering nearly 100 acres of fresh snow! By the weekend we should be skiing and riding on close to 95% of our terrain if not more!
Cold Yes. Snowmakers in Heaven!
What a week it's been for our snowmaking team. While the cold might cause you to take more breaks than normal it certainly has not been the case for our snowmaking team. Since Sunday these guys have swept the area from West to East in dramatic fashion! Using water sticks, homies and quick changes we've been able to dramatically change the landscape of our ski area!
Piles Upon Piles
You may have noticed that we are not using our fan guns in this cold weather and are instead reverting to some old school snowmaking tactics of "homies" & water-sticks. These tri-pod style guns are glorified water hoses that have very small nozzles creating snow very fast due to the fact that as soon as the water hits the cold air it crystalizes!
Moving Fast & Using Creativity
The guys have been moving guns to ensure that piles are spread out as opposed to giant mounds. This photo is from Sky High where you can see that a homie was placed on a tower gun pedestal to fill in the gaps. Typically snowmaking production like this would take multiple days but we are finding that with the extreme cold we are capable of covering ground within 12 - 24 hours!
Groomers Doing Heavy Pushing
Snowmakers get a ton of credit and deservedly so. They are out in the cold literally walking miles to make sure things are operating accordingly but our grooming machines & operators are also putting in the time! Since Saturday we've opened Infinity, Upper & Lower Main Event, Legends, Panorama, White Lightning, Timberwolf, Timber Pass, Silver Birch, and Sunset in the West. Trails like Woodspur, Carmie's, Black Bear & the Chutes should also add to the trail count by the weekend. Along with plenty of clean up in the lower trails near Cupid and new park builds on Upper Duskey, Sky High and Aspen.
Thanks for your Patience
I want to commend our team and also thank you for your patience while we work to provide the best conditions across the midwest for our guests. We continue to work hard to cover as much ground as quickly as possible to take advantage of this cold snap. Next week looks to be more seasonable with temps in the 30s during the day which will make for some stupendous skiing and riding conditions. Colder weather returns after and with the amount of snow we've made we're geared up for a long season once again.
Thanks for checking out our blog and we 'll see you on the slopes!
Greg
Granite Peak GM