Do you think destination resorts will increase or decrease efforts for early season snowmaking in the near future?
I would expect the gradual increases will continue. I think a lot of recent investment is upgrading to more computerization and especially energy efficiency.
In terms of the initial investments in the West, I know that 1981 on the heels of 1977 was the impetus in Colorado. I would guess that the next surge was during the string of low snow years from 1987-1992. Sun Valley's big push came during this period just like Mammoth's. The next run of lean seasons in many places was 2012-2015. I still wonder when Alta put in snowmaking because there is not a hint of a threatened Christmas there from 1987-88 through 2010-11.
My impression is that snowmaking at destination resorts in big mountains out west is considered important during early season.......Others had owners who didn't think it was worth thinking about seriously because they expected there would always be plenty of natural snowfall.
I think in 1960's and 1970's it was accepted among skiers that in bad years there might be no skiing until after Christmas, and complete wipeout seasons in erratic locations like SoCal. But now skiers expect to ski s
omething at Christmas, so you are not competitive in many markets without snowmaking. Dave McCoy at Mammoth was fine with the occasional wipeout Christmas because his drive-up clientele would still come January - April. But finances have also become more competitive (read corporate) with some debt, so the big companies don't want volatile revenue. Snowmaking is insurance to lessen the pain in the drier seasons.
Mountain Capital Partners places a high priority on snowmaking.
Nearly all of their areas are in the extremely volatile Southwest so snowmaking is correspondingly more important.
As for initial decisions, snowmaking requires big upfront capital investment plus expensive water and electricity operating expense. So if you are say, Alta, Targhee or Mt. Bachelor, do you really want to shell out that upfront investment if you only need it 10% or less of seasons, and even in those only to salvage Christmas? We can already see that even though Alta has installed more pipe that I would have expected, it has not installed high capacity of water and power.
One of the keys for each resort is how important Christmas Is. MCP said it's absolutely crucial at Hesperus, which is why they won't reopen it without snowmaking. If you are Alta, Mammoth or Bachelor with excellent skiing through April, Christmas is proportionately less of your revenue and thus the snowmaking installation decision is a closer call.
