Last season, the snowmakers at Holiday Valley produced 900 acre-feet of snow out of 145,000,000 gallons of water in just 800 hours of operation.  The goal of making as much snow as quickly as possible in the coldest weather available has three benefits.  It lowers the cost of snowmaking, it makes a better quality product, and, through running the system fewer hours, it is better for the environment.  Holiday Valley’s system can turn 8,000 gallons of water into snow every minute.  Win-win-win.  In the past, it was common to run snowmaking for up to 1,500 hours per season.  Two years ago, the average for the areas on the east coast was 1,204 hours per season. 

Says Holiday Valley’s General Manager, the air is the expensive part.  The ideal proportion of air to water is one to one.