Boone, Iowa — As Iowa’s winters become more unpredictable, one of the few ski areas in the state is increasing its snowmaking.
WHO 13 reports that Seven Oaks Recreation has added three new snowmaking guns to its network. The new guns can convert 100 gallons a minute into snow. Seven Oaks now has 23 snowguns across its slopes.
Joel Bryan, who owns Seven Oaks, described to WHO 13 about the importance of getting more snow guns onto the mountain:
“You can’t be a ski-area without snow and so we made sure we invested every year into our snow making system to make sure and last year it proved itself. We opened December 1st, we closed March 2nd. A few hiccups in there, but I think that the daily average high in February was 53 and we were still open…Right now if we were to turn cold today and we looked like this in three days we would be 100% open with 12-inches of snow so its very robust.”
First opened as Ski Valley in 1970, the ski area operated for a few decades before closing in the 1980s. Rick Bryan, who was the President of the now-closed Fun Valley ski area, visited the area and discovered that the mountain hadn’t operated for numerous years. The Bryan family acquired the ski area and reopened it for the 1997-98 season. Since then, they have continued modernizing the ski area, providing cheap skiing and riding to people living in the Des Moines area.
Image/Video Credits: Seven Oaks Recreation, WHO 13