Our crews keep coming back year after year to make snow because of the community and camaraderie.
What Goes On From Dusk To Dawn At Aspen Snowmass
From the time the lifts close until they start running the next morning, an orchestrated team of ski patrollers, groomers, and snowmakers work to make each mountain safe and ready for guests.
The Unsung Heroes Of Aspen Snowmass
While the Aspen Snowmass ski areas may seem magically ready with fluffy powder and neat corduroy runs when you hit the slopes in the morning, many unsung heroes pitched in through the night to give Mother Nature a helping hand.
Afternoon Sweep And Morning Trail Check
It’s 3:30 pm. Enter the Ski Patrol.
Ski Patrollers interact with guests and respond to calls throughout the day. But once the lifts are closed, the patrol “sweeps” the slopes to make sure that everyone is safely off the mountain. The patrollers move down at the same time visually scanning to their partner so that the entire mountain is webbed to clear the trails. The dispatcher at the top of the mountain tends to the phone all day and is the last to descend with a partner. Ski Patrol is back on the scene at the top of the mountain for an 8:00am meeting to discuss grooming, safety concerns, and sign up for morning trail checks where patrollers look for grooming mishaps or hazards before the lifts open.
Ski Patrollers interact with guests and respond to calls throughout the day. But once the lifts are closed, the patrol “sweeps” the slopes to make sure that everyone is safely off the mountain. The patrollers move down at the same time visually scanning to their partner so that the entire mountain is webbed to clear the trails. The dispatcher at the top of the mountain tends to the phone all day and is the last to descend with a partner. Ski Patrol is back on the scene at the top of the mountain for an 8:00am meeting to discuss grooming, safety concerns, and sign up for morning trail checks where patrollers look for grooming mishaps or hazards before the lifts open.
“As a patroller, you are the first one on the mountain and the last one off,” said Mark Campion, Training Coordinator at Buttermilk. “It’s a great job.”
Grooming Through The Night
The swing-shift snow grooming crew shows up on the scene from 3:30pm to 11:30pm to manipulate the snow with snowcats once the lifts close. Then, from 11:30pm until 9:30am, the graveyard crew takes over grooming.
On Snowmass Mountain a 9 man crew grooms an average of 30 trails a night with nine snow cats, plus two additional snowcats and a winch cat for terrain-park operation. According to long term operator Mark Gressett, one of the biggest challenges for the grooming crews can be early season conditions when there is little natural snow.
“After 46 years of grooming, I still love my job,” said Gressett. “It’s gratifying to put the mountain together and make it all happen. I look behind and can see the results of my work.”
“After 46 years of grooming, I still love my job,” said Gressett. “It’s gratifying to put the mountain together and make it all happen. I look behind and can see the results of my work.”
Snowmaking Night And Day
Through the night — and often throughout the day — a crew of 30 operate snow guns to supplement the natural snow on the slopes. Arguably, the most difficult and demanding job on the mountain, this team manages unmanageable variables: temperature, wind, water pressure, not to mention repair and maintenance of air compressors and pumps, as well as frozen lines. “Snowmaking is never easy, it always fights back,” says retired Snowmaking Manager Tony Wrone.
Hats (helmets) off to the hardworking ski patrollers, groomers, and snowmakers that help make the Aspen Snowmass ski experience so exceptional.
WE ARE SNOWMAKERS
snow making machine at snowmass
About The Author
Susan Linden has been wordsmithing as an advertising copywriter, feature writer, and storyteller since her college days. She left the whirlwind corporate world to live in the mountains and spends as much time as she can hiking, biking, and skiing in them. Working, playing, and raising a family in the Roaring Fork Valley for the last 29 years gives Susan a unique insider’s perspective to share
