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to 2013,” said Wirth. “By treasure trove, I’m talking in five-min- ute increments basically everything that you’d want to know about the weather.” To make sense of the massive dataset, Wirth used AI to accelerate the analysis. “It would probably take someone with a good grasp ... a week or two to do that,” he said. “I could do it in about 30 seconds” and at little cost using AI. Using the weather station data, Cannon created a statisti- cal analysis dashboard that integrates the resort’s snowmak- ing capacity to generate predictions on variables like per-acre application rate (i.e., gallons per acre-foot). “We needed to clear up some confusion,” said Wirth. “Some [people] were basing productivity questions on their own inde- pendent weather forecasting.” Now, the dashboard uses histor- ical data to guide decisions like route selection and opening day targets. “Our opening dates had varied widely within the last seven years,” said Wirth. “And I needed to find out, ‘OK, what can the business handle?’ but also, ‘what can the weather do for us?’” Cannon traditionally has opened for the season on the day after Thanksgiving, but increasingly marginal temperatures in Franconia Notch have made that goal more elusive. “Using our dashboard,” said Wirth, “we felt very comfortable early on plant- ing our flag and saying, ‘As long as this and this goes right, as long as we’re ready for it, we can hit that.’ Last November turned out to be one of the warmest that we’ve had since 2015, [but] we opened right on time. That helped reinforce with our team that the use of this information can justify solid decisions.” AI won’t replace the deep knowledge or instincts of experi- enced operators, but as these early examples show, it’s already helping resorts work smarter, plan better, and prepare for what’s next.
AI Tools for Today
Mike Lannen, founder of digital agency Eternity and co-host of the Ski Resort AI Bootcamp, shared two practical AI applications resort operations teams may want to consider: • Live translation with ChatGPT: Ops team members working alongside international staff can translate conversations in real time using the free version of ChatGPT’s mobile app, eas- ing language barriers in training and team building. “You can use it verbally—and not just Spanish, every single language,” said Lannen. • Custom GPTs for maintenance support: A custom GPT trained on lift manuals and incident reports could help staff troubleshoot technical issues, said Lannen. With a properly trained GPT, he said, “You could simply hop into the GPT and say, ‘Hey, I’m getting an emergency brake bypass fault and I can’t reset it—what should I do?’”
“These tools don’t replace humans,” said Lannen, “but they can help you get to a little bit of information faster.”
This article is based on the July 22, 2025, Ski Resort AI Bootcamp session “Modern Tools for Mountain Ops,” powered by SAM and Eternity. Learn more at saminfo.com/ai-bootcamp .
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