The ski day may be done when the chairs stop spinning, but for some there is still plenty more work to do. The Mountain Operations Team at Giants Ridge has been working around the clock to make snow for the trails and parks all season long. Benji Neff, the Director of Mountain Sports, took us for a ‘ride along” to see how it all works.

Once the temperatures fall, its a matter of time before the snow starts to be made. It takes a lot of man power, electricity, and water to make theses snowmaking operations successful. “We use a lot of water. We’ve got six pumps that can run at any given time. And so when we’re running about 100 guns, we’ll be running all six pumps. And we’re putting out about 4,500 gallons a minute at max capacity.”

They work in shifts all night and day to check and adjust snow guns to monitor the quality of snow blown. “You come out and you’re checking snow quality. And what you want to see is you want to see the snow bouncing off your jacket. And you want to be able to brush it off. If it’s sticking to your jacket, it’s too wet.”

All this snow then gets moved to cover the core trails with snowcats. A new piece of Lidar technology has made it easier for the groomers to map out the trails beneath them. The light detection programing allows for instant updates of the snow depth they move around the mounds. This way operators can easily identify the bare spots as they rake out the trails.

With the majority of trails ready, Giants Ridge is well prepared for the winter season and ready to ride.