Snowmaking stalled by warm temps but should pick up this weekend

Adequate water in the East River

With temperatures in the 50s on Election Day and brown hills all around town, the weather might not seem favorable for snow-making. But take a look up at the mountain, and you’ll see a narrow strip of white near the base area at Crested Butte Mountain Resort (CBMR).

Chris Corliss, CBMR mountain operations manager, said the resort got a jump on snow-making the Friday after Halloween, on November 2. That also happened to be the Day of the Dead, and while it’s too early to tell whether that’s an auspicious omen, Corliss said snow makers managed to fire nearly 2 million gallons of water through the snowmaking system over the next two nights.
“We fired up the system Friday night a little after midnight and had a really good run, a little under a million gallons that night,” Corliss said.
Since then, the weather hasn’t fully cooperated. The crew made another go at snow-making on Sunday night, but had to call it quits by 11 p.m. And the mountain has been experiencing higher temperatures than town.
“I’m sure there are people scratching their heads in the morning when it’s 15 degrees in town and we’re not making snow, but we have had a temperature inversion,” Corliss said.
He’s seen mornings where the temperature in town is 19 degrees, and on the mountain it’s 25 degrees. That’s a tad high for the tower guns, which Corliss said are best operated at temperatures of 24 degrees and under. And while it is possible to make snow with the ground guns—snow-making machines that sit on tripods on the surface of the ground—they’re not as efficient.
This early in the snow-making season, Corliss said it makes sense to wait for more favorable temperatures. Tower guns require significantly less compressed air to make snow, and are more efficient as a result.
According to Corliss, “Ground guns are good for marginal snow-making temperatures—anything above 20 degrees right up to 32 degrees. We like to run the tower guns because they’re 30 feet up in the air and we get hang time. That’s more time for the water molecules to hang in the air, which allows them to dry out and the water turns into snow crystals.”
Tower guns can be less effective near lifts or above tree line, where wind is more of a factor. But for now, CBMR is focusing on making snow on what Corliss called the backbone of Red Lady: down Peanut, down lower Keystone and toward the base area. So they’re waiting to be able to use the tower guns, and the weekend forecast looks promising on Saturday and Sunday.
Corliss did reference a favored saying of general manager Ethan Mueller—“Don’t believe a forecast until it’s on the ground”—but he and the snowmaking crew are optimistic that starting this weekend they’ll be able to fire up the guns and start 24-hour continuous snow-making. With a good start last weekend, and what Corliss called adequate water in the East River, he’s feeling optimistic.
“The system responded well [last weekend], there were no glitches and we’re waiting for cold air to go and turn the system on and leave it on for a couple days, which will really let us move quickly on the mountain,” Corliss said.