Snowmaking expands as ski season approaches

Last season started early on a too-good-to-be-true note, with 3-or 4-foot dumpings on some Maine and New Hampshire ski mountains even before Halloween arrived. But the snowy treat turned out to be a trick, elated resort managers learned as they watched the weather turn wet and balmy.

By the end of the season, Maine recorded its sixth warmest winter in Portland, where the mercury hit 57 degrees on Jan. 27. Total snowfall in Concord, N.H., was 49.7 inches, nearly 15 inches below normal. Vermont was so warm that some maple syrup producers were tapping their trees in January.

While their numbers were down, some ski areas were saved from total disaster by their ability to make snow.

"It would have been a very difficult year for some of the resorts to get a majority of their terrain open without snowmaking," said Karl Stone, Ski New Hampshire's marketing director.

Sugarloaf USA, which already had about 100 low-energy snow guns, is adding a couple of dozen to its arsenal. The snow guns will be especially useful in an upgraded terrain park that will accommodate jumps twice as big as the old park would allow, said Sugarloaf spokesman Bill Swain.

Mount Abram in Greenwood has put up more tower guns, which maximize efficiency by setting the nozzles 15 or so feet above the trails.

Added snowmaking is also the story in Vermont, where more high-efficiency guns are trained on the trails at Okemo, Mount Snow and the Middlebury College Snow Bowl. Middlebury's also decided to go with wind power.

New Hampshire resorts are investing in expanded snowmaking and grooming this season, said Ski New Hampshire's Stone. The added expansion is in proportion with past seasons, he said. Worries about global warming aside, the fact is that ever since skiing in Maine began in the 1930s, there have been cold spells and warm spells, said Greg Sweetser of the Ski Maine Association.

"The nature of the winters now," said Ryan Guerrette, operations manager at Big Rock Ski Area in Mars Hill, "is that you have to look at added snowmaking just to stay open."

Big Rock is also looking at wind power to help indirectly in attracting more customers, hoping the 28-turbine Mars Hill Wind Farm next door will draw skiers who just want to get a look at the $55 million power project.

"The windmills are right here on top of us. I definitely think it's going to be a booster," said Guerrette, noting that Big Rock has no plans presently to buy wind power. "We're definitely looking to capitalize on that."

Snow guns aren't the only improvements being made at the region's ski areas this season.

In Warren, Vt., Sugarbush has the largest capital expansion project to open to the public at any of the state's ski resorts this season. The resort has three new buildings featuring slopeside luxury suites, dining and an expanded changing area.

Stowe Mountain Resort in December opens a new lift that will transfer skiers between the slopes at the bases of Mount Mansfield and Spruce Peak. The long-anticipated lift replaces a shuttle that has connected the two Vermont mountains.

In Maine, Sugarloaf is replacing its terrain park and Big Rock is adding a snow tubing park with lighting and snowmaking.

The Mars Hill ski area, where some of the massive windmill blades were stored before they were fixed to the turbines, is even looking into the possibility of running its chair lifts in the summer months so people can see the windmills up close, said Guerrette.

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