Park City Mountain turned on snow guns Oct. 27 and it’s been touch-and-go since then.
When winter doesn’t arrive as planned, ski areas still need help from Mother Nature to blow machine-made snow. Mild temperatures have forced many northern Utah resorts like Park City to push back opening days.
The resort says it is watching for the snowmaking window it needs to start the season, and temperatures are only one part of that equation.
Better science and better technology mean snowmakers now get a wider window if they watch the humidity as well.
“When I started making snow, way back in the day, we hung the thermometers off the trees. And if it was 32 degrees, you try to make snow,” Park City's top snowmaker Barrett Burghard told KPCW on a walk around Mountain Village. “But now, you know, you can make snow if it's 34 degrees, if it's really low humidity.”
Snowmakers measure “wet bulb,” a combination of the air temperature and the moisture in it.
The higher the humidity, the colder it has to be to make good snow. That’s because snow guns are actually more like water guns, using compressed air to spray liquid that has to freeze before it falls.
“The air ejects the particles out into the atmosphere in little, tiny round droplets, and they freeze as they come to the ground,” Burghard said. “So it's just basically compressed air and water.”
The resulting snow is less flakey and more like Dippin’ Dots. It makes for a hard and sturdy base, but some skiers prefer the natural stuff because it’s more forgiving.
Snow guns used to all be manual. Burghard said he can run them on his phone now, gesturing to one nearby.
Wet bulb is measured in degrees, but because it factors in humidity, wet bulb seldom equals temperature.
Park City Mountain says it needs 28 degrees wet bulb to blow snow, and 15 degrees wet bulb is ideal.
According to a pre-season newsletter, early November has averaged 24 degrees wet bulb in the past three years. This year, November has averaged 44 degrees wet bulb.
To open, Park City Mountain is prioritizing strategic terrain to get skiers onto the mountain. That means thoroughfares like Homerun and Kokopelli, nearby ski school areas and the Three Kings terrain park.
As far as how much water it uses to make snow, the resort doesn’t talk gallons.
Burghard said his guns can cover a football field with a foot of snow in 24 hours. He needs five days of that to open Homerun.
Park City Mountain has yet to announce a new opening day.
Vail Resorts’ EpicPromise foundation is a financial supporter of KPCW.
