By Jon Gulliver
Staff writer
MARS HILL — The snow guns are blowing once again at the Bigrock ski area in Mars Hill thanks to some colder weather. Officials had hoped to get a good base made in November, but Mother Nature didn’t cooperate.
Contributed photo
Bigrock uses a fleet of seven fan guns to make snow on Mars Hill Mountain. If all goes well the facility should open for Alpine skiing this Saturday. Earlier this year the staff received some training on proper operation.
According to the National Weather Service in Caribou the region had its warmest November on record. The mean temperature in November in Caribou was 37.9 degrees which was 6.4 degrees above normal.
This past weekend the temperatures dipped and Bigrock made snow for a 36-hour stint to augment the three to four inches of natural snow. When the temperature is low enough, 27 degrees or below, the process will continue. The hope is to open the mountain for alpine skiing this weekend.
Despite receiving roughly 150 inches of natural snow a year, snowmaking is extremely important to the facility according to Bigrock Marketing Manager Mark Shea.
“Storms can be erratic, said Shea. “Like almost every ski area in the East, snowmaking gives us the ability to provide excellent snow surfaces whether the storms come or not.”
Because environmental conditions, especially air temperature and relative humidity, play such a large role in the snow-making process, it is difficult to determine how much snow can be made in a given time.
“The ideal situation is very cold and very dry air, and when those conditions are sustained for a period of a few days or more, we can make literally tons of snow,” he said. “Under fair conditions, we can make enough snow to cover all of the trails serviced by our SouthStar Triple Chairlift, about 10 acres of beginner and intermediate terrain, to a depth of 24 inches in about four days.”
Shea added Bigrock has top-to-bottom coverage on the mountain through an extensive series of conduits, and can make snow on about 60 percent of the 27 trails.
“Our arsenal of snow guns has been completely updated within the last few years, and we added one new gun last season,” said Shea. “This summer, we doubled our capacity — 2 million gallons — to store water on the mountain through major repairs and improvements to our existing holding ponds, as well as the construction of an entirely new pond.”
Besides Bigrock several other ski areas in the state are targeting a Dec. 17 opening date, including: Camden Snow Bowl, Camden; Lonesome Pine Trails, Fort Kent; Mt. Abram, Greenwood; Saddleback, Rangeley; and Shawnee Peak, Bridgton.
