When Halloween arrives at the Snowshoe Mountain Resort in West Virginia, it’s time to make winter. The resort owns more than 700 snow guns that between now and March will run for as many as 2,000 hours, blowing about 109 million cubic feet of snow out of thin air (and water).
Snowshoe has about 250 acres of skiable terrain, but only enough snow guns to cover a quarter of it at any given time, making the art of snowmaking part science and part strategy. When the guns go on, a crew of eight takes to the mountain to ensure the nozzles are situated and the machines are mixing a proper ratio of water and compressed air. Wind has to be taken into consideration, and steeper runs and the sides of the trail need more snow because that’s where it melts and slides off most quickly. No one on the team is satisfied until there’s been a “sleeve test” — literally sticking an arm into the plume to make sure the white stuff is the proper consistency for sticking and piling up.
