SMI® Customer Snowmaking Successes

Turnkey Success Story: Golden Peak, Vail, Colorado

The largest single-mountain ski resort in the U.S. has completed an extensive automated snowmaking upgrade that brought outstanding early-season coverage to the alpine race course, attracting major ski racing programs from youth, amateur and professional levels. Vail Mountain teamed up with experts from Snow Machines, Inc. (SMI) and Torrent Engineering & Equipment to design and construct the system, which involved 27 fully automated snowmaking machines, all controlled via radio communication and powered by SMI’s proprietary SmartSnowTM software.

Results were so positive that the Golden Peak race training area was in use even before the general mountain opening on Nov. 20, 2009, allowing Olympic racers such as Bode Miller and Lindsey Vonn to train early and often. “We made a strategic decision to achieve early season coverage this year, to attract more race training programs from across the country,” commented Vail Mountain Operations Manager Dave Tucholke. “The new system brought an early vitality to a part of the mountain that has not always enjoyed a robust early season,” he observed.

The Golden Peak snowmaking project began with a new drinking water source and piping to feed a 2,000 gpm (7,560 lpm), fully automated Torrent VFD pumping station. Water cooling towers with 1,000 gpm (3,780 lpm) capacity helped lower early season water temperatures from around 46°F to 34°F (7.8°C to 1.1°C). The project included a prefabricated pump building, two electrical transformers and more than 3,500 feet (1,067 meters) feet of water pipe to feed the new snowmaking network.

All 27 of the new snowmakers are SMI Super PoleCats, the fan-driven “big throw” snow guns that are considered the company’s workhorse. With its special nozzle design and large mesh filter, the Super PoleCat is known for reliable service, longevity and easy maintenance. Automatic valves control water flow to 30 spray nozzles in each unit, providing up to 142 gpm (537 lpm). Available options include a spray manifold heater, tower or carriage mounting and oscillation. (continued)

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