Snowmaking: It’s not only what you’ve got... it’s how and when you use it.

We’re moving toward Opening Day… but it isn't going to be this Saturday, November 15 as we had hoped :(

As always, November openings are weather permitting and the temperature volatility is really tough to bet on this time of year... and the forecast calls for another warm up into this weekend. Rest assured, the snowmaking crews are not letting any opportunities go by... in fact the snow guns began blasting Okemo's 3,343 ft. summit white again today at about 11 AM, and the guns are on outside as I post this entry. The last effort that ended on Sunday, November 2 brought the snow to the top of the steep on Upper World Cup. The focus now is to make on the summit area and to push down World Cup as far as we can go with a goal of top-to-bottom coverage as soon as we can get it.

Okemo will continue to be very aggressive, but as expensive as energy is these days, we won’t be foolish. Our system is designed to make optimal snow at temperatures below 29 degrees F wet bulb. When mountain temperatures are within our design range, Okemo snowmakers can open more acreage faster with our HKD air-water system than other systems can produce... even fan guns. Okemo has the ability in both water capacity (pumping and storage) and air plant to be more competitive than anyone else in the state when temperatures are within our range.

If you’re counting, you know that 96% of Okemo’s trails have snowmaking. This year’s operational focus is on energy-efficient, early-season snowmaking. Last winter, Okemo tested some new energy-efficient HKD guns and the HKD SV-10 and Genesis tower guns were a huge success. So much so that 80 of these new snowmaking guns were added to the Okemo arsenal this
year. Due to the ability to make snow more efficiently at closer-to-freezing
temperatures, Okemo can now make more snow than in previous years using much less energy… a fuel-cost savings of $377,000.

While it looks like it's going to be too warm to make snow from Wednesday onward through this weekend... please stay in touch with http://www.okemo.com/ for the latest or better yet, read this blog daily.

Keep your fingers crossed and your tips up!