New England resorts embrace robust new snowmaking tech

Snowmakers ramp up trail coverage at Crotched in New Hampshire. (Ski NH)

While the variables involved in snowmaking are increasing, new technology from HKD is here to assist with problem solving.

The North American company has been innovating since 1991, and the creation of the HKD Impulse gun in 2008 set a new industry standard by reducing the amount of compressed air required to make snow at marginal temperatures, leading to huge increases in efficiency for ski areas.

“Ski resorts throughout New England are looking to be more energy efficient and to open more quickly in the shorter windows we’re seeing now from Mother Nature,” said HKD president and co-founder Charles Santry, “So we’ve got to get the job done quickly and efficiently.”

Making snow requires pressurized water and compressed air for nucleation to form ice crystals after exiting a snow gun. Under the right conditions, those droplets will fall to the ground as snow, but higher temperatures and humidity can lower the quality of the manufactured snow, or increase the amount of air required for production.

Older models often used an internal mix process that could require 10 units of compressed air to convert every gallon of water, but using an external mixing process, HKD (and similar models from competitors like SMI and TechnoAlpin) are able to convert gallons of water at 10 percent of the energy cost, leading to 80 or 90 percent energy savings, as well as the ability to run hundreds of guns at once without running out of capacity.

Shorter winters and reduced natural snowfall rates have impacted the ski industry over the past few years, and in New England, humidity creates additional challenges due to the inefficiency of producing snow at wet bulb temperatures of 28 degrees or higher.

“These guns are really how we combat it,” Killington snowmaking manager Greg Gleason said about the challenging conditions.

“Every mountain has set air and water capacity, and with the old-style guns, you use a lot of air. Early season, we used to run out of air but still have water capacity. Now when you have low-energy guns spreading out the air, you can run more guns. That’s the goal in snowmaking, to be using all, or most, of your available pumping capacity.”

Killington is spending $7 million on new HKD guns with 490 units ready for this winter and another 510 scheduled to be installed next year. The investment is already paying off by allowing mountain operations to balance creating snow on multiple runs for the public while preparing the huge undertaking of getting Superstar ready for the Stifel Killington Cup, a World Cup event held the weekend after Thanksgiving.

In the past year, Gunstock spent $1.6 million on snowmaking expansion, Pats Peak added 12 HKD guns, Sunapee upgraded 20 low-energy guns, and Whaleback is applying part of a $100,000 grant awarded through the Northern Border Regional Commission to snowmaking improvements.

“Newer, more efficient equipment has made a dramatic difference at ski areas, improving snow production and snow quality, particularly in the early season, and at the same time increasing sustainability and reducing energy impact,” said Ski New Hampshire president Jessyca Keeler.

In Vermont, Stratton invested $2 million in its snowmaking capabilities during the offseason. It added 160 HKD Klik hydrants on trails like Frank’s Fall Line, Mike’s Way, West Meadow, Drifter Link and Old Log Road.

“This new installation will also allow for an earlier opening of the beginner terrain from the summit,” said Stratton senior mountain operations manager Kevin Booth. “We installed and tested the Klik technology on Polar Bear and Suntanner last season and the results were fantastic. The upgrade of 160 more of these hydrants will be a game changer for Stratton snowmaking.”

These newer guns also can save time because they’re easier to operate. Hundreds of towers topped with HKD guns line the slopes of Loon and other area resorts, and they’re attached to fixed water lines. Instead of asking laborers to run a hose to snow guns before production, the crew can easily adjust the flow to these towers using Klik Hydrant technology.

In Loon’s maintenance offices, managers can monitor the status and specifics of each tower through the iSno app, diagnosing the conditions at different areas of the mountain and controlling some guns remotely if they deem it practical.

“With the old-school snowmaking generation, it used to be more of an art than it is now,” said Brendan Ryan, vice president of snow surface management for Boyne Resorts, which owns Loon, Pleasant, Sugarloaf and Sunday River, among other resorts.

“It took almost infinite adjustments at the hydrant to produce good snow quality. With HKD Impulse, you just turn it on and set the stages. Even a ‘Day 2’ snowmaker can walk up to one and make good snow if they know the temperature.”

Loon continues to add hydrants that run on a semi-automated basis, and full automation is a possibility down the road, although most snowmakers asserted that human judgment is still very much necessary to intervene when the process inevitably faces some speed bumps. Ryan said the immediate five-year plan for Boyne is to invest in semi-automatic hydrants while still depending on dedicated snowmakers to manually activate, log and calculate the flow of individual guns on the mountain.

“People think of automation as turning a gun on from your cell phone,” said Loon’s president and general manager, Brian Norton. “But you want to make sure it’s not aiming at the wrong place. You have to be physically involved. It’s never going to be robots doing this, but it’s possible to manage a 100-gun system with one person.”

For Norton, improved snowmaking offers two major benefits. Greater efficiency reduces cost and allows for better skiing surface over more acreage, something Loon has offered with pride for well over a decade.

The resort uses nine compressors of various sizes to pump water from two sources — Connector Pond in Lincoln and the East Branch of the Pemigewasset River at the base of the mountain. Mixing the sources together helps cool the pond water without stressing the river’s level per instructions from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

To pump more water requires 300 pounds per square inch of pressure or more, so resorts are spending to boost their distribution network, adding more horsepower higher on their respective mountains. As some of the earliest adopters of the new tech, Sunday River and Loon are in prime position to continue making high-quality snow while improving infrastructure, all while the research and development branch at the new HKD factory in Quebec City works to meet changing demands.

“In New England, the thing that I love, and that motivates me in my role, is that we drive the guest experience through snowmaking,” said Boyne’s Ryan, who also manages snowmaking at Western resorts, such as Big Sky in Montana. “The marketplace is competitive and you need to have high-end snowmaking systems.” ′

Snowmaking focus

Bretton Woods | Added tower guns from HKD on Fabyan’s Express.
Bromley | Added a new pipeline on the lower mountain, which should improve 
conditions on Lower Thruway and Lower Boulevard. Added new snow guns.
Catamount | Installed 3,000 feet of water pipe between On-Stage and Catamount. The 
line will be fitted with mounted fan guns. Replaced 3,600 feet of pipe and added two new valve houses that will bring greater reliability and more efficiency. In a bid for more 
efficiency, some snow guns have been moved and hydrants have been replaced or added.
Cranmore | Added eight new guns, expanding two systems in the snowmaking line 
to create more pressure, yielding more and better snow.
Granite Gorge | Added 11 fan guns from Blue Hills.
Gunstock | $1.8 million in snowmaking expansion includes making snow on 
Upper Ramrod and Hotshot for the first time and involves nearly 2.5 miles of snowmaking pipe and 70 energy-efficient HKD Impulse tower guns.
Killington/Pico |  Added nearly 500 snow guns as part of the new ownership group’s 
$30 million in capital improvements in the first 18 months.
Loon | Snowmaking was installed on Upper and Lower Stinger, making the Timbertown section 100 percent equipped. Upgrades have been completed on South Peak trails like Cruiser, Ripsaw and Escape Route. More than 100 new semi-automated snowmaking 
hydrants were installed on heavily used trails Haulback, Brookway and Bear Claw Extension.
Lost Valley | Snowmaking expansion on Bull Moose
Mad River Glen | The snowmaking pump has been overhauled.
Magic | Added tower guns from Killington.
Mount Abram | By rerouting pipes and valve junctions, Mt. Abram will be able to make more snow on key trails like Sweeper, Boris and Dudley. It also acquired 10 new tower guns through a grant from Efficiency Maine and is demoing three new fan guns (2 PoleCats, 
1 Super PoleCat) this winter.
Mount Sunapee | Added 20 low-energy snow guns.
Okemo | Added five new HKD fan snow guns and 17 low-energy snow guns.
Pats Peak | Added four fan guns and will make snow on intermediate Downdraft 
with 12 new HKD Impulse snow guns.
Stratton | Added 160 HKD Klik hydrants to allow for more efficient snowmaking on 
beginner terrain from the summit. Replaced about 1,500 feet of pipe along the access road that brings water from Stratton Lake to the base.
Sugarbush | New mid-station pumps and infrastructure improvements were made 
on the Inverness trail on the Mount Ellen side.
Sugarloaf | Upgraded a main water line pipe that increases overall snowmaking capacity and water distribution supporting early season operations and drinking water.
Sunday River | Added 160 high-efficiency HKD snow guns across key trails
Wachusett | Added 14 tower fan guns from SMI on Sundowner, Look Mom and in the 
base area, using iSnow from HKD for automation, and added about 4,000 feet of pipe.