In mid-December 2003, I went on a ski press visit to Snowbasin for the old version of Snowjournal:
Despite having received a lot of press for hosting the men's and women's downhill and Super-G events, Snowbasin was more than a year later (and 65 years after it opened!) still a comparative unknown for destination skiers and the ski area was looking for coverage, not only of the mountain's terrain and luxurious lodges but also their impressive new snowmaking system. Tony posted a similar but more detailed report from his 2010 visit to Sun Valley.
The first thing they showed me was the "boiler room," where the white stuff was generated via Siemens infrastructure, which blended chilled and compressed air and water that was then dispatched through 55 miles of pipe to 100 guns simultaneously. They claimed it was the most expansive snowmaking capacity in the world at the time.
They led me to the control center where everything was operated via colorful Windows XP programs and felt like an air-traffic-control center. It was pretty mindblowing how they could pinpoint everything from that war room. I wasn't allowed to take photos of the proprietary technology!
Then I was escorted to the slopes for a demonstration of the guns and how the humidity could be adjusted from wet base-building snow to light pixie dust. They described it as being able to replicate a "right side up" snowstorm.
Finally, we were taken on a tour of the ski area. Even on a Saturday in mid-December, it was virtually empty:
The view from the John Paul sector:
At one point we finally ran into a few people.
Despite having received a lot of press for hosting the men's and women's downhill and Super-G events, Snowbasin was more than a year later (and 65 years after it opened!) still a comparative unknown for destination skiers and the ski area was looking for coverage, not only of the mountain's terrain and luxurious lodges but also their impressive new snowmaking system. Tony posted a similar but more detailed report from his 2010 visit to Sun Valley.
The first thing they showed me was the "boiler room," where the white stuff was generated via Siemens infrastructure, which blended chilled and compressed air and water that was then dispatched through 55 miles of pipe to 100 guns simultaneously. They claimed it was the most expansive snowmaking capacity in the world at the time.
They led me to the control center where everything was operated via colorful Windows XP programs and felt like an air-traffic-control center. It was pretty mindblowing how they could pinpoint everything from that war room. I wasn't allowed to take photos of the proprietary technology!
Then I was escorted to the slopes for a demonstration of the guns and how the humidity could be adjusted from wet base-building snow to light pixie dust. They described it as being able to replicate a "right side up" snowstorm.
Finally, we were taken on a tour of the ski area. Even on a Saturday in mid-December, it was virtually empty:
The view from the John Paul sector:
At one point we finally ran into a few people.
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