CBMR awarded Sustainable Slopes grant at the NSAA awards will

Gets 10 new snowmaking guns

Just a couple of weeks ago Crested Butte Mountain Resort won two National Ski Areas Association awards, for guest services and marketing. And CBMR recently followed it up by winning a Sustainable Slopes grant from the same organization. The grant winners were announced to the public on April 28.

Sponsored by California energy bar maker CLIF Bar & Co., and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), the Sustainable Slopes grants were awarded to five resorts—Alta, Utah; Crested Butte; Grand Targhee, Wyo.; Mt. Abram, Maine; and Stevens Pass, Wash.
The grants total $100,000, and are designed to spark innovation among NSAA member resorts and provide resorts additional resources to initiate sustainability projects.
Mt. Abram, Maine and Crested Butte will each receive 10 high-efficiency snowmaking guns from Snow Economics/HKD Snowmakers, a total value of $80,000.
NSAA president Michael Berry said of the Sustainable Slopes grants, “These grants are a great vehicle for not only implementing new green projects at U.S. ski areas, but also to encourage the sharing of information of successful environmental programs and practices among our member resorts.”
Mark Voegeli, CBMR’s assistant mountain manager and director of snowmaking and grooming, said, “Hopefully this is just one of the grants that we get. I really want to pursue rebates from the local power supplier towards machinery and equipment.”
According to Voegeli, in other states, ski areas will approach power suppliers about rebates for buying more efficient snowmaking equipment, which saves on power usage.
“What’s really special about these guns—they allow us to start making snow in the 28 to 29 degree range,” Voegeli said. To compare, the standard “ground guns” operate best in the 21 to 23 degree range.
“The new guns use the same amount of water whether it’s 29 degrees or minus 10, and they use upwards of six to seven times less air than a typical ground gun,” according to Voegeli. “These are energy-saving guns. They will help us early season; it will use less energy and get the same amount of water out there in the long run, and earlier. They’re going to help us continue to save on power bills. It should be a fairly substantial savings. It will help us not use these ‘air hogs’ [ground guns that are less efficient], and continue to allow us to get past these types of guns.”
Massachusetts-based snowmaking equipment manufacturer Snow Economics/HKD Snowmakers provided the equipment to the grant winners. “HKD is committed to sustainability and we are thrilled to contribute to the greening of ski area snowmaking and support the broader Sustainable Slopes program,” said Snow Economics president Charles Santry. “Both Crested Butte and Mt. Abram submitted compelling applications for our snowmaking grants and we look forward to working closely with both resorts to realize their goal of greater snowmaking efficiency.”
Voegeli said the new guns will likely be placed near the top of the Red Lady lift and placed down the mountain from there. Because of their ability to operate at higher temperatures, Voegeli said, they will work well, because they get temperature inversions at the top of Red Lady lift that make it warmer there than at the bottom of the mountain.
“They’re going to be strategically placed for the first month of snowmaking at least,” said Voegeli.
The new guns are set to arrive in the fall of 2010 and will be making snow before opening day.