Prime Time Ski Club column for Bethel Citizen 2/6/14
This past week was a busy one for Prime Time Ski Club members who participated in Go50 Week activities sponsored by Sunday River ski area. During the entire ski season, Prime Time Ski Club members meet every weekday at North Peak Lodge at 10 a.m. (upper level, right-hand side). After a brief time for announcements, members (who are 50 years or older) usually break into small groups of from four to eight skiers, based primarily on skiing ability and terrain preference. However, this week’s Monday meeting was made extra special by a seemingly endless supply of free cinnamon buns, provided by Sunday River management. Several of our members skied with visitors and prospective members who showed up at North Peak throughout the week, sharing their knowledge of the mountain and the surrounding area and making new friends.
Another highlight of Go50 Week was tours of the Snowflake Factory, the mountain’s snowmaking facilities near Barker Lodge. A number of curious Prime Time members toured the snowmaking facility to find out how Sunday River can continually produce such great ski conditions with so little help from Mother Nature, as has been the case so far this year. Sunday River has earned its reputation of “the most dependable snow in New England ™” by spending approximately $2.5 million every year to make more snow, more often than any other resort.
Basically snowmaking consists of pulling water from a source, pumping it onto the mountain and forcing it through a nozzle by pressurized air. From there the water droplets freeze into snow crystals and settle to the ground. A key to Sunday River’s successful snowmaking effort is its location near the bottom of a huge watershed with nearly 43 square miles of drainage. Water is pulled directly from the Sunday River and is constantly replenished. Once the snow melts in the spring, water returns to the same watershed and river.
Sunday River also operates the world’s largest high-pressure snowmaking system and can compress about 54,000 cubic feet of air each minute. The high volume and pressurized system allows Sunday River to make more snow than any other resort and allows snowmakers to control the process to ensure consistent snow texture from top to the bottom of each trail. This air capacity allows Sunday River to run more than 300 guns at the same time and enables it to cover 95 percent of the mountain’s non-gladed terrain with snow.
Sunday River’s snowmaking arsenal includes over 1,900 snow guns and 30 miles of hose, enough to leave guns set up all winter long on each trail. There’s 72 miles of snowmaking pipes that span all eight mountain peaks. Over the past several years Sunday River has also invested in tower mounts which position snow guns high above trails to allow snow crystals more time to freeze in the air before settling down on trails and enables each gun to cover a greater surface area of the trails. Sunday River has also invested in new energy-efficient gun heads which are able to make more snow using less energy and allow snowmakers to run more snow guns at one time. Sunday River was also the first to utilize computers to control snow quality.
Three years ago a production company asked Sunday River to participate in a pilot for a television show called Man vs. Weather. They wanted to showcase the best snowmakers in America, the dedication involved, and the raw weather they face. You can find a video about this at www.vimeo.com/80830216. In the video one of the snowmakers commented, “We work all night long to make the skiers happy.” Prime Time members are among those happy skiers and thank the hardworking snowmakers for giving us the most open terrain in Maine and New Hampshire.
If you want to experience Sunday River’s legendary snow for yourself, why not join us. The Prime Time Ski Club motto is “No one needs to ski alone.” Check out our website at www. primetimeskiclub.com or just show up at North Peak Lodge at 10 a.m. weekdays and ski a few runs with us and make some new friends.
