The Snowmaker - Episode 1 - Heavenly, CA

[jerryg]

This is a pretty cool semi-behind-the-scenes mountain ops video from Heavenly. I couldn't get the video to embed on the page, but the like works...

The Snowmakers - Episode 1

 

[jarrodski]

i like it

 

[drjeff]

Cool vid! Just wish that LOTS of Northeast Ski Areas were having the temps right now to make a similiar vid!!

 

[jerryg]

Heavenly does a pretty good job with promotional videos and they always come out looking very professional. Probably helps to have a fleet of helicopters at the ready.

In this video, I like how they talk about the plan to coat the rocks and stumps with basically a glacier and then build the ski surface on top. Because of old silver mining, alot of the area where they open that mountain early, is covered in blasted rocks, which is obviously more cumbersome to cover than grass.

 

[powers]

That's my Bro!

Rick Powers. It's HIS snow. Just ask him. We went out a couple of winters ago and got the behind the scenes tour of the mountain and had a barbeque at one of the ponds. Great crew. Rick has been there for something like 15 years. If anyone heads out this winter you will have to the local tour. Just ask for the guy with the white wolf.

 

[jerryg]

Rick Powers. It's HIS snow. Just ask him. We went out a couple of winters ago and got the behind the scenes tour of the mountain and had a barbeque at one of the ponds. Great crew. Rick has been there for something like 15 years. If anyone heads out this winter you will have to the local tour. Just ask for the guy with the white wolf.

My wife and I spend a couple weeks in Lake Tahoe each year and have seasons passes (Basically the price of 4 day tiockets) at Heavenly. While we ski a bunch of other areas as well, she is partial to Heavenly so we ski there roughly 60-70% of the time. Neither of us have taken the tour, but I have a good idea of where it is.

 

[AndyEich]

That video has great production and I don't want to take away from anybody doing this tough job, but I'd rather see "behind the scenes" at an area that really relies on snowmaking to survive--midwest, mid-atlantic, etc. They aren't as glamorous, but I'll bet those guys could teach the recreational snowmakers a thing or two.
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[jerryg]

That video has great production and I don't want to take away from anybody doing this tough job, but I'd rather see "behind the scenes" at an area that really relies on snowmaking to survive--midwest, mid-atlantic, etc. They aren't as glamorous, but I'll bet those guys could teach the recreational snowmakers a thing or two.

Oh no doubt. Tahoe ski resorts don't exactly hurt for natural snowfall and the average nighttime temps is the Sierra's are balmy compared to clear nights in the mid-west or mid-Atlantic. The Heavenly video was clearly not aimed at folks like us and I'm admittedly a little biased.

Now a really interesting video would be for a crew to follow around the guys at Sugarloaf for a couple nights. About 6 years ago, Skiing did a feature on the SL snowmaking and it was pretty interesting to say the least. Talk about underpaid to face death on a nightly basis.

 

[davidhowland14]

still an awesome video though.

 

[Vortex]

Fun to watch.

 

[Grassi21]

My 2 year old just watched this while eating breakfast.