Technoalpin Snowfactory

This machine can make snow in temps up to 90 degrees.  It works most optimally between 28 and 75.  The costs to operate it are prohibitive of covering entire ski slopes, so no year round skiing, but I could see a maybe Killington using it to open the North Ridge extra early, or to fill in the holes on Superstar late season.

http://www.technoalpin.com/en-us/snow-guns/snowfactory.html

Or ski jumps for summer practice.

I bet Mikey doesn't like it...

http://youtu.be/vYEXzx-TINc

Let's see if he makes an alias to come back and say how horrible it is.

This Outside Online article from a few days ago was the first time I heard about the Snowfactory (it's popped up in a few other places as well, so TechnoAlpin must have sent out a press release blitz).  My very first though upon reading the article was "Snoloco would love this."

U.S. Ski Areas Can Now Make Snow in the Summer

I heard Gore's ordering 10 of these for the Ski Bowl, powered by a wind turbine at the Saddle.

If I was running a ski area,  I'd buy maybe 5 of them to run alongside my normal snow guns.  They'd be used early season on low elevation terrain that requires a lot of snow (like lift loading areas).  It might come down to the snow factories allowing an opening where there wouldn't be one otherwise.

I'd also use them during midwinter thaws to get high traffic areas covered before the temps went back down, as well as late season to keep sensitive spots from rotting out which would result in the closure of an entire section of the mountain if it did.

Seriously doubt Mike cares snoloco. He's got it his own snowmaking thread.

This technology is designed for a very specific application: when you need a small amount of snow for a crucial event.  Any widespread use of this technology would be obscene IMO.

They're half a million each.  And ridiculously expensive to operate.

How does this technology differ from the failed version (Snowmagic?) that was tried at Tenney NH a dozen years ago?

snoloco wrote

If I was running a ski area,  I'd buy maybe 5 of them to run alongside my normal snow guns.  They'd be used early season on low elevation terrain that requires a lot of snow (like lift loading areas).  It might come down to the snow factories allowing an opening where there wouldn't be one otherwise.

I'd also use them during midwinter thaws to get high traffic areas covered before the temps went back down, as well as late season to keep sensitive spots from rotting out which would result in the closure of an entire section of the mountain if it did.

If you were running a ski area, you wouldn't, because you'd be out of a job after the banks take it all back after your extravagant capital spending.

Wait, no. You could put up ten thousand condos and sell time shares, er, fractional ownership, in all of them to pay for snowmaking in July. What could go wrong?

Adk Jeff wrote

They're half a million each.  And ridiculously expensive to operate.

 
Yup, not cost efficient for the already difficult and struggling ski area biz.

We are in the midst of a massive ski area death era. It may seem bad now but I have a hunch we haven't seen nuthin yet!

I don't really know.  It could be cost effective if having some of these machines allows a ski area to be open during a time when it otherwise wouldn't, especially for one that always pushes the season like Killington.  Think of what happened this year.  They managed to open on October 18th using conventional snowmaking, but then had to close after being open for a week due to r*in and warm temps.

I don't see how they'd be able to cover a single trail in the North Ridge only using Snow Factories.  They would have to wait for at least some cold temps when they can use their normal snow guns.  After they get the first batch of snow on the trails, they can use the Snow Factories when temps don't permit the use of the normal snow guns to stockpile snow and keep enough in case there is warm weather.  When they can use the regular snow guns, the Snow Factories get shut down.  Instead of having to count on snowmaking temps to be open consistently (at least every weekend) they can use these machines to guarantee that, and make extra money, since they always get crowded early season.  That revenue stream could easily pay for the cost to buy some of these and operate them.

The #'s a place like Killington produce during periods like that (rain, early/late season, and only one or two trails) isn't going to pay the bills for that.

If I were managing a mountain, I wouldn't want this thing anywhere near my snowmakers. If I spent that much on it to begin with, the temptation to use it would be enormous, whether conditions justified it or not. I think the niche for something like this is for Red Bull, Mountain Dew or the X Games, where they just want to put on a show someplace and the promo budget is bigger. Ski mountains need to watch the bottom line, more so when temps don't cooperate.

They would need to sell 25,000 $40 tickets to pay for two Snow Factories.  One at the top of the North Ridge and one at the bottom of the North Ridge.  If the machines last for 20 years, they'd have to sell 1,250 tickets each year that would not have been sold otherwise.  That could be done in 2 weekends, in which the mountain couldn't be open without the Snow Factories.

From the conditions report it sure looks like they could have used one this weekend.

I think a lot of north east resorts would have liked to have one or two of these to better prepare for christmas week. I say "liked to have" as it still may not be the best use of limited budgets.


Tom

snoloco wrote

They would need to sell 25,000 $40 tickets to pay for two Snow Factories.  One at the top of the North Ridge and one at the bottom of the North Ridge.  If the machines last for 20 years, they'd have to sell 1,250 tickets each year that would not have been sold otherwise.  That could be done in 2 weekends, in which the mountain couldn't be open without the Snow Factories.

You do realize that the people skiing in April/May and October/November before Thanksgiving are like 90% season pass holding dirtbag brown bag lunch eaters who don't rent or take lessons? Why spend more money on them? The only reason I can think of is to retain them in your market if the guy down the road decides to make more snow earlier and later, but, that's a losing game, anyway.

These things are so huge that it looks like they'd have to be in a fixed location and not be moved.  The snow would have to be moved with a groomer to the areas it was needed.  Maybe they could be moved like a couple times a year, but it would not be easy to make them portable.  I could see Killington having 2, one at the top of North Ridge and one at the bottom.  When late season comes, they move them to Superstar, one at the top and one at the bottom.  Use them to allow the North Ridge to stay open through early season thaws and to keep Superstar more skiable later.  The lift would still need to be walk on walk off, but there would be less walking on the actual trail.  What makes me go or keeps me home is if I can ski the entire run without having to take off my skis and walk down portions of the trail.  I had a busy spring, so I had no time to go this year, but normally I try to make it out.

raisingarizona wrote

Yup, not cost efficient for the already difficult and struggling ski area biz.

We are in the midst of a massive ski area death era. It may seem bad now but I have a hunch we haven't seen nuthin yet!

x2 + what everyone else said after. Especially in the Northeast.

Give me 2k vert in a ride on a slow double and 300" of snow. No substitute for that.