CBMR snowmakers feeling optimistic about water supply

Resort has full access to water rights

After a low-water summer made for the record books—a gauge on the Gunnison River shows the lowest water level on record in 85 years of data—locals are turning their attention toward the ski hill. Crested Butte Mountain Resort (CBMR) draws water from the East River for early-season snowmaking, and it certainly hasn’t been spared from the drought.

But CBMR has been keeping an eye on water levels all summer, and according to general manager Ethan Mueller, the resort currently has full access to its water rights. “[The year of] 2002 was a worse year as it relates to water supply and flow in the East River, and CBMR was not held back in any form or fashion, making all the snow we needed to,” he said.
Chris Corliss, mountain operations manager, explained that the Forest Service regulates the amount of water the resort can pump out of the East River. A minimum amount of water, which varies between November and December, must flow downstream—so whatever CBMR pumps out of the river must not interfere with that minimum flow.
“We have never not been able to pump any water,” Corliss said. He added that this summer, water levels have “been up and down a lot, so we’ve been comparing this summer’s drought to the closest summer pattern of this type. We were in the same scenario in 2002, but once it came time to make snow, the water levels were there and we had a normal year of snowmaking.”
What he can’t predict is exactly how much water will be in the East River by Halloween—the resort typically starts making snow between midnight on Halloween and sometime in early- to mid-November. Even in a typical year with normal water levels, the resort is sometimes restricted in the amount of water it can pump at any one time.
When snowmaking begins around 8 p.m., CBMR monitors water levels in the East River online. The pumps can be operating at full capacity and there can be plenty of water in the river, but if temperatures drop enough around 5:30 a.m. to slow ground water, they’ll have to slow snow production in order to maintain flows in the river.
“In our watershed, from Emerald Lake down through Schofield Pass and into the East River, if there’s no snow on the ground and it gets cold at night things lock up at 6 a.m., when we have the coldest temperatures of the night, and the ground water slows up,” Corliss explained.
He went on to admit, “There’s nothing more frustrating than being a snowmaker and turning the guns off. But that’s a reality in any year for early season snow-making. If we have snow on the ground, even a couple of inches, that insulates the ground enough to keep ground water moving.”
So the question for CBMR is not whether there will be water for snowmaking but whether the amount of water the resort can draw will be restricted. If that happens, Corliss said, he’ll prioritize where to concentrate snowmaking efforts.
“We would naturally go for Red Lady and some teaching terrain, but if we’re restricted we’d do the main line run and maybe wait on the terrain park. Those are the tough decisions we will possibly have to make in October,” Corliss said. But he and Mueller both agree, things look good.
“We are expecting to make plenty of early season snow, and history shows that Mother Nature comes through nicely after low snow years as well,” Mueller said.