recharge before firing up again.
uses mostly mobile SMI Kid fan guns in the heart of its cross-country trails where a narrower throw is needed. As Spirit’s head of maintenance Tom Straka says, “We couldn’t use the big guns because that would wreck the trees.” However, the bigger SMI Standard Polecats are used in wider areas, and Super Polecats are used in the stadium area. It’s all about the application. On narrow cross-country trails through the woods, guns with narrow directional throws generally make the most sense. Hussey opted for a mix of HKD guns but particularly likes the Phazer model, which can focus all its throw directly onto a trail. Most are sled-mounted mobile guns along with a few fixed-position guns on hinged swing arms for better accuracy. While Straka says that at Spirit
Mountain the target snow depths for the alpine area and the Nordic area are the same, cross-country operators can gener- ally get away with less snow depth than at alpine areas due to much less skier traffic and the absence of sharp ski edges repeatedly peeling snow away downhill.
Another lesson learned here: Even the most well-financed operator can only do so much if water is in limited supply.
EQUIPMENT THAT WORKS
A big question for cross-country snow- making, of course, is what kind of hard- ware makes the most sense? Brown says that implementing fan guns, which have onboard air compressors, can be a good place to start. A fan gun is more expen- sive than a typical air-water gun but requires a bit less infrastructure. Instead of needing to install a compressed-air sys- tem, including pipe infrastructure, they require installation of a few high-voltage electrical pedestals. Water only. Spirit Mountain, for example, doesn’t have any on-hill air and
A MACHINE-MADE FUTURE?
Will making snow at cross-country areas become, as at almost all alpine areas, standard operating procedure? Long-term climate trends might dictate that, but at this point, any cross-coun- try operator needs to make a careful balance-sheet analysis. Given the tight margins associated with cross-country operations, closure (or partial closure) during low-snow periods might make more sense financially. At a publicly owned area like Spirit Mountain, the balance sheet might be just one consideration; providing a reli- able community asset might also need to be factored into the decision. As Brown says, when it comes to a return on invest- ment, financial or otherwise, “everyone is different.” But everyone is the same in one regard: Natural snow in recent years has been in short supply, especially in the Midwest and the East. Twenty years ago, snowmaking at a cross-country area was unusual, but that’s changing. Fast.
Above: Rikert Outdoor Center, Vt., utilzes a mix of sled-mounted and fixed-position (pictured) stick guns from HKD to cover its trails.
Below: With no on-hill air system, Spirit Mountain, Minn., uses a mix of big and small SMI fan guns on its XC terrain.
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