This week’s sunny skies and spring-like daytime temperatures combined with Arizona Snowbowl’s snowmaking capabilities are creating ideal skiing and snowboarding conditions in the high desert!
“Snowmaking has made an incredible difference at Snowbowl,” said Marketing and Sales Director Dave Smith. “Both last year and this year we’ve experienced lean times between snowstorms, but snowmaking has provided wall-to-wall coverage this season, delivering just wonderful ski conditions.”
During Snowbowl’s 75th anniversary season, the resort is making snow for the first time. With northern Arizona’s cold nights and low humidity, Snowbowl technicians are hard at work operating 25 snowmaking guns that produce enough snow overnight to cover all four lanes on a one-mile stretch of Route 66.
“We’ve been extremely pleased with the quality of snow we are able to produce. Our experienced groomers are then able to move that snow around the ski runs, maintaining highly desirable, consistent conditions,” said Snowbowl General Manager J.R. Murray.
In nature of course, there first must be moisture in the atmosphere to make snow. The moisture condenses and when that weight becomes too heavy for the air to keep it in space, it falls to the ground. If the air above the ground is cold enough, the moisture falls as snow. Snowmaking shortcuts this process by eliminating the evaporation stage whereby water is forced through a snowgun and is bombarded with highly pressurized air. The compressed air fractures the water into very small particles as it moves through the gun sending it into the atmosphere where, with a favorable temperature, the particles freeze and fall back down as snow.
“Nature has its art, but snowmakers are artists as well,” said Murray. “This snow is not artificial in any sense of the word; it is snow, just made by machines.”
Snowbowl uses airless guns. Snowmaking guns that use air are less expensive, but airless guns are more in line with the National Ski Areas Association’s sustainability program because they require fewer pipes and less electricity.