Every mountain says it has great snow. Stratton guarantees it! Ski or ride for an hour. Any time, any day. Not happy? We will return the value of the ticket to a Stratton Mountain Gift Card to be used another day.
When are the conditions "ideal" for snowmaking?
18 degrees Fahrenheit, 40 percent humidity, winds at 5-10 mph. You need a little wind to spread out your snow. Depending on the conditions, we're maxing out on either air or water. In marginal temperatures, it's air. In colder weather, we max out the water, which is far more efficient.
Is machine-made snow real snow?
It's better than real snow. Mother Nature gives you what she has to offer. Here we're in charge of quality, adjusting the mixture to create the snow we want. In the beginning of the season, we want heavier snow (more water) to build that base layer (1-2 feet for a beginner trail, 2-3 feet for intermediate, 3 feet+ for expert terrain). We use lighter snow (more air) for a quality surface, and on a bump trail that's about a foot of surface snow. Plus machine-made snow lasts longer!
Among the first skis areas to "farm" snow, today Stratton ranks among the top rated resorts for snow quality with 95% snowmaking capabilities and a team that has roughly 300 years combined experience under their suspenders.
We sat down with Jeff Cullinane, Stratton's Mountain Operations Analyst, so he could explain, in layman's terms, exactly what it takes to make this mountain look and feel like winter. To really run home of how indispensible our snowmaking team is, he pointed out that not a single trail open today would be accessible without snowmaking. That makes you rather thankful for it, now doesn't it?
Snowmaking isn't a spur of the moment decision. The snowmaking system takes between 2 to 3 hours to charge, and the lines have to be fully drained every time production stops. Making snow for an hour or two rarely makes sense. So the team analyzes the forecast by the hours and there are always several options on the table so if Mother Nature tries to pull a fast one on us, there's a Plan B and a Plan C.
Snow is made by mixing compressed air and pressurized water. Fed from two separate lines that meet in the snow guns, we have complete control over the quality of the snow we produce, using more moisture for base snow and dry, light snow to resurface. The high tech guns we have at our disposal make this subtle difference possible and are why we have the best skiing surface in the East.
The moment temperatures drop below 32 degrees, we're all repeatedly asked why the guns don't snap on. Ideal and maximally productive snowmaking temperatures are below 20 Degrees F wet bulb. Wet bulb is an industry-wide measurement that looks at the ambient temperature, as measured by your home thermometer, and relative humidity, the amount of moisture in the air. It's essentially the temperature you feel on your skin when it's wet and exposed to moving air. Temperatures above 20 Degrees F hinder our ability to produce the best quality snow.
Jeff repeatedly stressed that Stratton has made snow at every opportunity. To give you an idea how many of those opportunities Mother Nature threw our way, Stratton made snow 404 hours in December, or 54% of the month.
Crowning the highest peak in southern Vermont, Stratton is a large resort! We've got a lot of equipment and a great team of snowmakers on hand to help us orchestrate it all. Our arsenal currently boasts over 1,000 snow guns which can be hooked into any of the several thousand air and water hydrants across the mountain. There are about 40 guys who go out in shifts of 10-15, night or day, to manually turn the hydrants on and off and keep a watchful eye on on-mountain operations.
Next time you see a snowmaker milling about the resort, give a big thanks.
