Drought won't stop Sierra Nevada snow

The scenery between Interstate 80 in Truckee and the base of Northstar California Resort isn't exactly a winter wonderland.

Autumn leaves are gone from most of the deciduous trees. Like much of California and Nevada, which have been under severe drought for years, Martis Valley is brown and dry.

But near the base of the resort, at about 6,330 feet in elevation, it's a different landscape altogether.

That's where a crew of as many as 28 people working with Director of Mountain Operations Jim Lamore work around the clock, but mostly at night, to cover the mountain with enough snow to make good on the resort's promise to open Nov. 21.

On a recent Sunday night the resort was operating about 100 of its 140 snow guns which, under the right conditions, are capable of producing as much as two feet of snow in an hour. Despite the brown hillsides elsewhere, the slopes were covered with an ever-deepening blanket of fresh, white snow.

"You have to get to know the little microclimates on the mountain," Lamore said. "Part of it is predicting the weather, figuring out when we should fire up and when we should shut down."

Much of the technology has been around for decades. Diamond Peak Resort in Incline Village, for example, was the first operator in the Sierra Nevada to make snow more than 30 years ago.

In the ensuing years, however, the infrastructure has grown more efficient and today's snow resort operators are using digital technology to maximize the quantity and quality of snow they can produce and reduce the amount of energy it takes.

Lamore can flip through screens on a smart phone using a proprietary app that lets him monitor and even control nearly every aspect of the process, right down to the operation of the guns that fire the mist over the ski runs.

"I was laying in bed last night and this morning looking at it," Lamore said, describing how the shift to digital and mobile technology changes the business.

Northstar has more than 790 locations on the mountain where it can make snow. About 22 miles of pipes feed air and water to the guns, of which there are three types. The resort has the ability to open all of its lifts with only machine made snow.

Given the importance of snow to the viability of winter resorts its easy to see why Northstar and others in the Sierra Nevada invest so heavily in making it.

In a recent report to investors Vail Resorts, Inc., which owns Northstar, Heavenly and Kirkwood resorts blamed the drought for a 16 percent decrease in skier visits at its Tahoe area properties.

In another report it said poor natural snow conditions can not only degrade the skiing experience but increase costs for snowmaking.

"Unseasonably warm weather may result in inadequate natural snowfall and reduce skiable terrain which increases the cost of snowmaking and could render snowmaking wholly or partially ineffective in maintaining quality skiing conditions, including in areas which are not accessible by snowmaking equipment," the earnings report stated.

The report went on to state the mere perception that the Sierra Nevada could be in for another low snow year is costly.

"Additionally, the early season snow conditions and skier perceptions of early season snow conditions influence the momentum and success of the overall ski season," the report stated.

At Mt. Rose-Ski Tahoe in Reno operators have increased snowmaking capacity 50 percent for this season. They also expanded skiable terrain in areas that are fully covered by snowmaking.

"Anytime we have a window to make snow ... we can just put that much more coverage on the mountain that much quicker," Marketing Director Mike Pierce said of the increased capacity.

For the 2012-13 season Squaw Valley reported $2.6 million in snowmaking upgrades.

While the drought has clearly hurt resorts in recent years, it's unclear whether climate change will hurt them in coming years.

Kelly Redmond, a climate scientist at Desert Research Institute in Reno, said natural snowfall in the Sierra Nevada is historically volatile year-to-year.

In recent decades, Redmond said, the averages in mid-winter from December through February have remained consistent. But he said there are signs that climate change is having an effect in late fall and spring.

"There is a lot of expectation that snowfall might go down, I haven't seen it in the heart of winter," Redmond said. "A little bit more around the edges. The melt seems to be getting underway earlier."

Extending the spring season is something snowmaking can help, even though it is typically done in fall and winter. That's because it allows resorts to build up a deeper base more quickly which can extend the time the runs are covered once the melt is underway.

Ironically, the drought conditions that reduced natural snowfall dramatically can be good for snowmaking, Redmond said, because the process is most efficient in cold, dry air.

"Paradoxically the same conditions causing the drought and lack of snow are kind of favorable at night for running the snowmaking machines," he said.