Snowmaking allows Sierra ski season to start
By Benjamin Spillman, Reno Gazette-Journal
The scenery between Interstate 80 in Truckee and the base of Northstar isn’t exactly a winter wonderland.
Autumn leaves are gone from most of the deciduous trees. Like much of California and Nevada, which have been under severe drought for years, Martis Valley is brown and dry.
But near the base of the resort, at about 6,330 feet in elevation, it’s a different landscape altogether.
That’s where a crew of as many as 28 people working with Director of Mountain Operations Jim Lamore work around the clock, but mostly at night, to cover the mountain with enough snow to make good on the resort’s promise to open Nov. 21.
On a recent Sunday night the resort was operating about 100 of its 140 snow guns which, under the right conditions, are capable of producing as much as two feet of snow in an hour. Despite the brown hillsides elsewhere, the slopes were covered with an ever-deepening blanket of fresh, white snow.
Awesome! Charge tourists a bunch for thin man made snow. They don’t know the difference.
Yes, VAIL and other corporate BS. Big money for big investors = locals get screwed.
There are other problems that somehow do not get discussed.
The carbon footprint of snowmaking is huge. A very electricity intensive activity, and uses a lot of water in addition.
I know that most ski areas claim to be buying green power from wind and solar. Uh Uh….riiiight.
My cynical side says if it was possible to tally all the clean power that companies say they use, it would be a significantly larger number than the easier to determine generating capacity of green power producers.
Snowmaking in the early days was a real learning expierence! The snow guns at Heavenly Valley sounded like a jet taking off. I could hear them roaring away all night long all the way to the Sierra Tract. Heavenly Valley and the technology of snowmaking improved, not very noisy and a better quality of manmade “snow”. Fake, but it’s better than nothing.
Lets hope for a good winter! OLS