SIOUX FALLS, SD (KELO) — It’s been a white, Black Friday at Great Bear Ski Valley.
The staff there has been taking advantage of our stretch of cold weather by making snow, round-the-clock.
The effort is all part of laying the groundwork for opening day that they hope, is now less than a month away.
Great Bear’s arsenal of snow guns, 22 in all, have been firing away at the ski slope throughout the week. All day. All night.
“It’s exciting. Anytime we can make snow in November is great! These temperatures are perfect. We’re just really stoked for the season,” Great Bear General Manager Dan Grider said.
Making snow isn’t a scatter-shot process. The crew targets specific areas of the hill for the snow to pile up.
“Make it to where the piles are big for now, so they don’t melt when it gets warm next week. We’ll spread them out and see where we’re at,” Great Bear Director of Mountain Operations Kyle Vanderberg said.
This is where all the water to make the snow comes from. This pond can hold more than one-million gallons of water. When the pond runs low, Great Bear will pump more water in.
“We’ll blast through probably 15-million gallons of water every season making snow. It’s expensive. That’s probably $40-50-thousand worth of water. But that’s what it takes to run a ski area,” Grider said.
The snow guns launch water droplets that freeze when they hit the cold air, turning into ice crystals… creating instant snow.
“We’re not making a snowflake like the one you’d make in an art class. We’re making more like a pellet. It kind of looks like Dippin’ Dots. And that’s good for us because that’s easier to manipulate and then it condenses nicely,” Vanderberg said.
If Great Bear gets a long enough stretch of cold weather, they could open for the season by mid-December.
“It takes us generally seven to eight days to get enough snow on the hill to open up. We might run a little short of that, but this is a great start,” Grider said.
Of course, Great Bear will always welcome additional snow courtesy of Mother Nature. But until then, they’ll make do with the manufactured snow that’s coming from the ground up.
Great Bear added a couple of new snow guns during the off-season.
You can track the snow-making progress live, by going to our two Great Bear Live Cams
