:: SMI® Customer Successes

Heavenly Valley combines high-volume snowmaking with computerized automation
for maximum efficiency!

One of the nation’s largest ski resorts is saving labor and time – while boosting snow quality and overall efficiency – by integrating computer-driven automation to control its extensive high-volume snowmaking operation. The fully-networked system at Heavenly Valley is so advanced that it constantly monitors the environment for changes in air temperature, humidity, wind direction, water pressure and other elements critical to making great snow. The result is an ability to generate larger quantities of higher quality snow in shorter periods of time, using fewer man-hours. “Snowmaking used to be more art than science, and it took a lot of time and effort,” commented Heavenly Valley Snowmaking Manager Barrett Burghard. “In the past, we had a team of six snowmakers who handled all the equipment, manually opening air and water hydrants, charging lines and starting up each unit, then reversing it all for shutdown. It was very labor-intensive, and adjusting snow quality required an experienced technician,” he said. That situation has changed with Heavenly’s installation of 49 “big throw” snow guns – all SMI® Super Polecats – and SmartSnowTM 5.0 automation software. This state-of-the-art program delivers complete control over snowmaking operations, with interactive trail maps and gun locations, an extensive weather station package, superior graphing capability and data export. Optional modules can also be included for excellent modeling and control of auxiliary systems, such as pump stations, compressors, security, trail lighting, even building lighting and HVAC. “We made a conscious decision several years ago to invest heavily in automation and software,” explained SMI President Joe VanderKelen. “Technology had advanced so much that we saw an opportunity to take snowmaking to the next level. Our automation today is far superior to what was available just a few years ago, and it can be custom-tailored to suit specific applications,” he said. “We’re seeing it help our customers dramatically improve efficiency and control labor costs.” “Ease of operation is the key benefit to the computer-controlled system,” Burghard continued. “We can now monitor and control all of the SMI machines from a single computer. We can take temperature and humidity readings from all over the mountain,

and we can configure individual weather stations to run a combination of guns, based on the specific conditions from that area,” he said. “I can even log on to the system from home and control the operations from my computer there.”

The Equipment
At 4,800 skiable acres (1,942 hectares), Heavenly Valley ranks with the heavyweights in the ski industry, and the resort has a snowmaking system to match. It’s one of the most extensive in the world, with more than 200 snowmaking machines, both fan-driven and traditional air/water units. In fact, Heavenly’s system has enough capacity to cover nearly 70% of its cleared trails on both sides of the mountain – 3,500 vertical feet (1,067 meters) in California and 2,840 vertical feet (866 meters) in Nevada. With optimum snowmaking conditions, Heavenly can make snow at the rate of 3.6 feet per acre (0.45 meters per hectare), per hour. The resort can generate about one foot (.3 meters) of snow covering 43 acres (17.4 hectares) during a single 12- hour period. Of the 49 SMI machines at Heavenly, 37 are permanently mounted on towers and hard wired into the network, some with fiber optic cable and others with copper wire. The remaining 12 units are radio controlled, carriage-mounted Super PoleCats, which can be moved to whatever location may need additional snow cover on a given day. “The portable fan guns communicate through a series of four radio repeating stations,” Burghard explained. “Any time those machines are relocated, all we have to do is turn them on and they link up with the closest repeater automatically. Instead of having a staff member physically visiting each machine to turn it on and confirm snow quality, I can start up any part of the network while sitting at my desk.” “The computer tracks operating time for each unit, as well as water usage and power consumption,” Burghard added. “The system maintains all of that data, so we can look for trends and opportunities to improve efficiency even further.” Burghard said that Heavenly Valley plans to continue its snowmaking investment in the future. “The seasons fluctuate a lot, and it’s important to have good snow, especially during the holidays. Our snowmaking system has saved us a lot of heartache during seasons when snowfalls have been late or below normal.”