Snowmaking
Timeline
Snowmaking History
Cypress Mountains fully automated Snowmaking system was installed in preparation for hosting the Snowboarding and Freestyle Skiing competitions of the 2010 Winter Olympic Games. The system was designed to take advantage of high productivity during any windows of low temperature and humidity, with state-of-the-art automatic controls and temperature sensors.
An endless pursuit of more snow
Improvements to our snowmaking capabilities allow us to open our most popular terrain in the early season and provide the best snow conditions possible every day of the Ski and Snowboarding season. Our coverage now extends over most of the terrain on the north face of Black Mountain including all our Terrain Park locations, Collins Run top to bottom of the Lions Express chairlift, and full snowmaking coverage on Easy Rider Quad.
Our Snowmaking capabilities provide a big boost for early season-opening and an ability to refresh or maintain our main ski runs during the season. As well, the Easy Rider Quad coverage provides a great opportunity to introduce Snow School lessons to our Guests as early as possible to get a great start to the Season.
The Fleet
Our Snowmaking System
Our fleet of Super PoleCat Snowguns with 25 hp Fans is now increased to 84 guns after a recent arrival of 8 new tower guns, 84 of which are fully automated so they can turn on and off automatically based on temperature and a 25 million litre (5.5 million gallons) reservoir that is designed to provide a maximum of 4500 gallons per minute of water to the snow guns. Our guns are unmatched in their capacity to convert clean cold mountain water to snowflake crystals. It takes 605,665 litres of water to cover one acre with one flat foot of snow.
Super PoleCat Tower Guns
Fully automated with onboard weather stations and hydrant actuators.
Super PoleCat Carriage Guns
Fully automated with onboard weather stations and hydrant actuators.
PoleKid Carriage Guns
Manually controlled for an extra boost where needed.
How Snowguns Work
- The pumping system delivers water to hydrants down the side of all our serviced ski runs
- 4 Booster Pumps with capacity of 11,356 LPM @720psi
- Pipeline system to distribute water to hydrants develops the required flow at the gun nozzle
- Hydrants to reduce the pressure from the pipeline to one which develops the required flow at the gun nozzle re
- Nozzles are a series of orifices allowing water to be atomized and discharged to the atmosphere
- Guns are located in priority area for maximum production and snow quality
The 87 hydrant locations that we now have installed, provide excellent coverage. Our Max Snowmaking capacity is 17,034 LPM (Litres Per Minute) with total coverage of 27 Ha. Cypress Mountain will continue to make plans to improve the Snowmaking System in the future in order to provide the premium man-made snow that has become one of our mainstays.
Best in the Snowmaking business
Our Crew
The experienced and highly skilled Cypress Mountain Snowmaking Crew, whom we acclaim to be the "Best in the Business", work non-stop around the clock during stretches of snowmaking temperatures to keep a close eye on the quality and location of the snow production. They monitor winds and temperature patterns to make adjustments to produce the most quality snow possible under any circumstances.