The race to open ski resorts earlier and keep them covered when winter weather refuses to cooperate is increasingly being fought with pumps, compressors, automated snow guns, and a whole lot of money.
Across North America, ski resorts are pouring millions into increasingly sophisticated snowmaking systems capable of producing more snow in less time and operating in conditions that would have challenged older equipment.
Some of the investments coming online for the 2026–27 ski season show just how serious the snowmaking arms race has become.
At Okemo Mountain Resort in Vermont, one of the most significant snowmaking infrastructure projects in the resort’s history is currently underway.
The multi-million dollar project includes more than 700 new HKD Impulse and R5 Phazer snow guns, nine variable-frequency-drive motors, an upgraded Summit Valve House, and the replacement of 15 diesel-powered compressors with two high-efficiency electric units.
But perhaps the most consequential number has nothing to do with how many snow guns are being installed.
Okemo says its new equipment should be able to effectively produce snow at temperatures approximately 10°F warmer than its previous systems could handle.
That potentially gives the resort considerably more time to make snow when temperatures are hovering near the margins.
“This investment will be a gamechanger for both our guests and our operations,” Okemo General Manager Bruce Schmidt said. “The upgrades will allow us to make more snow in less time, capitalize on shorter weather windows, and maintain high-quality conditions throughout the season, all while significantly reducing the energy required to do it.”
The ability to capitalize on those short windows is becoming increasingly important.
Traditional snowmaking isn’t as simple as turning on a snow gun whenever the temperature drops below freezing. Temperature and humidity combine to determine the wet-bulb temperature. The colder and drier the air becomes, the easier it is to efficiently turn water into snow.
Modern equipment is pushing those operational limits, while automation allows resorts to react to favorable conditions much faster.
Instead of crews manually adjusting hundreds of guns across a mountain as temperatures fluctuate, automated systems can respond to changing conditions and regulate water and air flow. When a viable snowmaking window lasts hours rather than days, that speed matters.
And Okemo is far from alone.
Alterra Mountain Company announced this week that it plans to invest more than $350 million across its destinations for the 2026–27 season, with snowmaking projects underway at several mountains.
At Solitude Mountain Resort in Utah, a new multi-million-dollar snowmaking project will add fixed and mobile snow guns while increasing snowmaking coverage and overall capacity.
That’s on top of more than $5 million Solitude invested in snowmaking last season.
The goal is straightforward: help Solitude continue pushing for what it describes as Utah’s longest ski and snowboard season.
At Winter Park Resort in Colorado, Alterra is continuing a multi-year rebuild of the resort’s snowmaking infrastructure.
Additional automated fan guns and mobile snow guns are being installed for 2026–27. Alterra says the latest work will double snowmaking capacity on Lower Hughes, improve water efficiency, and help Winter Park achieve earlier opening dates.
This isn’t a new project for Winter Park.
The resort has been undergoing a massive snowmaking overhaul for several years. Alterra previously described the effort as a $37 million, two-year rebuild of Winter Park’s snowmaking infrastructure from the ground up.
After the first year of the project, Alterra said the new system had already cut snowmaking energy consumption nearly in half.
Deer Valley is going bigger on water storage.
The Utah resort is adding a new 10-million-gallon reservoir that will work with its Summit Pump House to provide additional snowmaking coverage. Alterra says roughly 80% to 90% of the water used for snowmaking will eventually return to its source through the watershed.
Taken together, these projects illustrate an important shift in what major ski resorts are trying to accomplish with snowmaking.
It isn’t simply about making more snow.
It’s about making snow faster, more efficiently, across more terrain, and during narrower windows of favorable weather.
That can have a direct effect on what skiers actually experience.
A resort capable of pumping out substantially more snow during a 12-hour cold snap may be able to open terrain that would have previously required several nights of favorable temperatures. Automated systems can also quickly restart production when temperatures become favorable and shut equipment down when they aren’t.
The same infrastructure can help resorts recover faster after the increasingly familiar midwinter combination of warm temperatures and rain.
Okemo specifically says its upgrades should lead to earlier terrain openings, faster terrain expansion, and quicker recovery following warm or rainy weather.
There is also an enormous efficiency component.
Okemo expects its transition away from 15 diesel compressors to eliminate approximately 250,000 gallons of diesel consumption annually. Variable-frequency-drive motors allow the system to better match electricity use to actual demand instead of running equipment at full capacity when it isn’t necessary.
For ski resorts, that creates an unusual combination: the ability to make considerably more snow while potentially consuming less energy per unit of snow produced.
None of this eliminates the industry’s dependence on cold weather.
Even the world’s most advanced snowmaking system needs the right atmospheric conditions. No collection of automated guns can manufacture an entire winter when temperatures remain too warm.
But when the mercury finally drops, the difference between old and new snowmaking infrastructure can be enormous.
That is why the investments keep getting bigger.
Ski resorts have spent decades competing over lifts, terrain, lodges, and base-area development. Increasingly, some of their most consequential investments are infrastructure most skiers will barely notice….that is until fall weather gives way to first signs of winter, the temperatures finally drop, and one mountain starts spinning lifts before everybody else.
