Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Quieter snow guns installed on Baldy

Devices make 180 gallons of snow per minute for halfpipe

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By TREVON MILLIARD
Express Staff Writer

A TechnoAlpin fan gun installed on a tower manufactures snow. Sun Valley Co. has leased two fan guns like this for the winter to build its Warm Springs halfpipe because they’re quieter than air-water guns. Photo courtesy of TechnoAlpin

Two new fan guns quieter than the previous ones will be making the snow for the Warm Springs halfpipe on Bald Mountain this winter.

Sun Valley Co. Director of Mountain Operations Peter Stearns said the new guns will spew out 180 gallons of snow per minute.

That's about 20 gallons less per minute than the air-water guns used in previous winters, but Stearns said the tradeoff should be worth it. He said the old guns were very noisy because compressors had to be used to mix the water with air and push the manufactured snow out at high pressures. The fan guns cut back on noise levels because they require less pressure.

And the fan guns—made by international snowmaking systems company TechnoAlpin—can produce almost as much snow.

"It takes a lot of snow to make a superpipe," Stearns said.

Sun Valley Co. has about 522 other air-water guns scaling Bald Mountain's slopes that use the same technology as the old halfpipe guns. But instead of expelling 200 gallons per minute, these guns are only capable of 24 gallons per minute.

"If you used those, you'd start now and get the pipe built in April," Stearns said.

He said Sun Valley Co. didn't buy the two snow fans, which cost about $25,000 each, but is merely leasing them for the winter as a test run.

"Right now, we're leasing them to see if they're a valuable tool," he said. "They're expensive, but everything is in the ski business."

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Trevon Milliard: tmilliard@mtexpress.com