{"id":50398,"date":"2020-11-17T03:19:22","date_gmt":"2020-11-17T03:19:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/purgatory-resort-boosts-snowmaking-operations\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T09:50:57","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T09:50:57","slug":"purgatory-resort-boosts-snowmaking-operations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/purgatory-resort-boosts-snowmaking-operations\/","title":{"rendered":"Purgatory Resort boosts snowmaking operations"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"A
A snowmaking crew member checks snow guns at Purgatory Resort on Thursday. Crews are working through cold nights and mornings making snow as the resort prepares for a Nov. 21 opening.<\/span>Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Purgatory Resort has bolstered its snowmaking this year with the addition of six fan guns that more than double the amount of artificial snow that can be produced compared with older snowmaking devices.<\/p>\n

Twelve fan guns are now in operation at Purgatory, in addition to the use of older models of land guns, said Purgatory General Manger Dave Rathbun.<\/p>\n

The resort, which is scheduled to open Nov. 21, covers 250 acres with snowmaking.<\/p>\n

Fan guns, which can run from $35,000 to $45,000 each, can produce snow from about 100 gallons of water per minute compared with land guns that could produce snow from about 20 to 40 gallons of water per minute, Rathbun said.<\/p>\n

\"Sam
Sam Williams, director of mountain operations at Purgatory Resort, boards a snowcat to groom trails Thursday morning at the ski resort. The mountain received 20 inches of snow from storms in early November, and crews are busy making snow on 250 acres.<\/span>Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cIt\u2019s not been a super cold start to the year, but it\u2019s been cold enough. And with that added firepower, we\u2019re looking great,\u201d Rathbun said. \u201cWe had a three-day stretch during the cold snap when we were able to pump more water in 72 hours and made more snow than we ever have before.\u201d<\/p>\n

The fan guns have nozzles covering about 3\u00bd feet in diameter to produce snow, compared with land guns that have nozzles covering about 8 inches in diameter, Rathbun said.<\/p>\n

Fan guns also have their own on-board air compressor compared with the land guns that had to be connected by pipes to a compressor station near U.S. Highway 550, Rathbun said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese new fan guns \u2013 where all you\u2019re doing is putting the water through them and they don\u2019t require the compressed air coming from over a mile away through a steel pipe \u2013 are so much more efficient,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Friday, San Juan Basin Public Health gave approval to Purgatory\u2019s plan<\/a> to operate during the COVID-19 pandemic. The plan is now under review by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.<\/p>\n

\"Sam
Sam Williams, director of mountain operations at Purgatory Resort, drives a snowcat while grooming snow Thursday morning at the ski resort.<\/span>Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Given Purgatory\u2019s bolstered snowmaking capacity, Rathbun said his biggest concern about welcoming skiers by Nov. 21 wasn\u2019t the warm weather and dearth of snow. Instead, he said, the big concern was whether the resort would receive OKs from local and state health officials in time to open.<\/p>\n

As part of an update to its master plan, Rathbun said snowmaking will be examined for efficiency and whether it can cover more terrain.<\/p>\n

\"Snowmaking
Snowmaking is underway early Thursday morning at Purgatory Resort. Aided by colder temperatures, snowmaking crews are working nights and mornings on the mountain.<\/span>Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cYou enter these master plan processes not with a lot of fixed ideas, but you go assess where you\u2019re at, and where you could be, and then that will guide you in planning for the future,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Despite the lack of precipitation this year, Rathbun said the resort\u2019s snowmaking pond is expected to provide adequate water for snowmaking.<\/p>\n

A long-term cold spell weather hits, it might lower the stream flow in Cascade Creek, where the water recharge comes from, Rathbun said. However, any extended cold period would likely be accompanied with snowstorms as well.<\/p>\n

\"Snowmaking
Snowmaking crews were busy early Thursday at Purgatory Resort.<\/span>Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

During snow melt, an estimated 80% of water used to make the artificial snow will be released as runoff.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll we\u2019re doing is storing the water in the form of snow,\u201d he said. \u201cFrankly, having that water stored instead of just running through the system all season long when people like ranchers and farmers can\u2019t use it, is a benefit.\u201d<\/p>\n

parmijo@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

\"Snowmaking
Snowmaking is underway early Thursday morning at Purgatory Resort. Aided by colder temperatures, snowmaking crews are working nights and mornings on the mountain.<\/span>Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

guns replacing less efficient equipment<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":50399,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[13,28,29,712,421,316],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-50398","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter","tag-purgatory","tag-tourism-and-leisure","tag-video"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50398","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50398"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50398\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":87739,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50398\/revisions\/87739"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50399"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50398"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50398"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50398"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=50398"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}