More Than Barriers: Colorado Ski Resort Uses Fences And Wind To Gather Snow

Last weekend, October 22nd, Arapahoe Basin Ski Area, Colorado, shared details via Facebook about one of its many "snow management" tools: snow fences.

Perhaps confused for barriers, these fences create snow drifts that improve resort piste coverage.

Here's the rundown.

From the caption:

"Snowfences: Check out these snowfences in Lenawee Parks. These, and the other fences you notice scattered about the mountain, are a critical and major part of our snow management strategy. As snow is blown by the wind across a slope, it may hit one of these fences. Those snow crystal are forced to rise above the fence, and on the leeward side of the fence, they encounter some calmer air and fall to the snow surface. This action creates snow drifts on the leeward side of the fences. Those drifts are available for riders to ski and/or snowcat drivers to compact and push. We place these fences in zones where we want to catch snow. A well placed fence can catch as much, or more, snow as a well placed fan gun can make snow."

Another day, another opportunity for me to -- perhaps embarrassingly -- admit my lack of knowledge about ski resort operations.

I've been an avid skier for over two decades, yet until recently, I didn't know that these fences, often placed conspicuously in the middle of ski runs, served a real purpose. Maybe this knowledge is enlightening for you, too.

Elsewhere on the continent, Sunshine Village, a Canadian ski resort, relies on a similar method to capture and build snow deposits. Thanks to fenced-in snow enclosures that build depth over time, it only operates four snowguns. Sunshine Village's technique is distinct from A-Basin's snow fence approach and is called snow farming.

In contrast, like several other Coloradan resorts, A-Basin heavily relies on snowmaking, particularly in the early season, to open in that late October to early November window.

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