Maine — Grants are helping a Maine ski area become much better at making snow.
Bruce Farrin of the Rumford Falls Times reports that Black Mountain of Maine is investing over $1.25 million to upgrade its snowmaking capabilities.
Last offseason saw the addition of 20 new snowguns, which were added to the Upper Allagash and Saint John runs. They also installed a transformer to generate more power for snowmaking.
This offseason, they built a new snowmaking pumphouse with new pumps. This will double their water capacity and grow their air pressure, resulting in better output and earlier openings. Construction on that project is nearing completion. Outside of snowmaking, a new competition center is being built this offseason.
“We got the pumps in place and we’re just connecting some pipe right now,” said Rob Wutzdorff, Outdoor Operations Manager for Black Mountain. “We’ve been doing some welding out there, and that will connect us to the mountain from the new pumphouse. And we’re waiting for a transformer to be dropped and we can have power to those pumps down there.”
In terms of growing pains, one challenge will be figuring out how the new high-tech snowguns work, along with making them functional with the new pumphouse.
“They’ll be some growing pains with the new system, I’m sure, but it’s a much more efficient system, pumping much more water,” said Wutzdorff. “You’ve got to have a good snowmaking system these days or you won’t make it. You’ve got to be efficient and can’t be wasting money out there.”
Two grants helped make these additions possible. A $388,000 Northern Border Regional Commission grant allowed them to purchase 20 snowguns. The other was a $775k Congressionally Directed Spending (CDS) grant. Add in some individual contributions (over $102k), and voilà.
The growth is impressive. Back in 2003, they only had three snowguns. Now, they’re at 51, with that tally likely increasing in the years ahead.
Future Plans
On October 18th from 12 to 4 p.m., Black will host an open house to show people around the new snowmaking pumphouse.
For the 2027-28 season, the final phase of this project will occur. The snowmaking pond will be drastically expanded, going from 1.9 million to 5 million gallons, which is an over 150% increase. For the future, Black is also eyeing the purchase of ten additional snow guns for the alpine area, plus five for the Nordic terrain.
Click here to check out the full article from the Rumford Falls Times, which includes perspectives from Black Mountain’s management and snowmakers.
Image Credits: Black Mountain of Maine
