In July of 2024, Mt. Holiday broke ground on a project that has been in the planning stages for more than 3 years. The goal: modernize the snowmaking infrastructure and capacity to elevate the resort’s ability to make snow at the level of top regional winter sports resorts. Neighboring resorts have demonstrated, year after year, that with a robust snowmaking system, a snow surface can be created that allows for consistent snowsports through the core winter recreation months of December to March.
Lacking this infrastructure, Mt. Holiday was forced to cross fingers and hope that the temperature fluctuations kept to a minimum range. Hope that cold air remains constant for a string of several days, with no departure to the bounds above freezing. Hope that snowmaking machines that date back to the 1980s do not break down, that the wells continue to produce water, and that the single pump does not suffer a failure. It’s a lot to ask.
Mt. Holiday has been a community institution for 75 years, and to be sure that it sticks around for the next 75 years a significant investment was needed to execute a transformative plan to remove that dependency on luck.
Why now and how has this been possible?
In 2020, Mt. Holiday engaged with Snowmakers, Inc. (SMI) in Midland, Michigan. SMI is a world-class snowmaker manufacturer that brings decades of knowledge and know-how to creating a modern snowmaking infrastructure that brings quality snow to areas, like northern Michigan, that can be challenged by unreliable weather. SMI educated the Mt. Holiday team and developed the improvement plan, while exercising an enormous amount of patience as we slowly laid the foundation for community support.
Historically, Mt. Holiday has been fortunate enough to have donors and financial supporters that have embraced the vision of what the Hill can be and what is needed to realize that vision. Many of the project elements underway right now are not glamorous. Most of the upgrades will be invisible, buried beneath several feet of sand. Investment requires faith and foresight.
The Hill has received support from families who are involved with the Holiday Race Team. From families who raised their kids in the houses in the Holiday Hills neighborhood. From local businesses who know what this institution means to their employees and our community. From Grand Traverse County, who understands that we are richer with Mt. Holiday than without. And from an anonymous donor, whose gift put all the capital from the groups above into motion.
It is due to them that all of the exciting work is now happening.
Okay, OKAY. Get to the good stuff already! What is Holiday doing right now?
Ensuring that Mt. Holiday has the horsepower needed to create a fun snow surface throughout our traditional winter season requires us to address several needs. From the beginning of the
cycle to the end, the FIVE SNOWMAKING PILLARS are: Water Capacity, Pumping Capacity, Piping Capacity, Electrical Capacity, and Snowmaking Capacity.
Reduced capacity in any one of these pillars hampers the ability to produce snow. Like any machine, maximum output is measured by the weakest cog. What does this mean for Mt. Holiday? Which of these five snowmaking pillars needed to be addressed?
Short answer: All of them. We’ve broken the snowmaking plan into two stages. Stage 1 began in late July of 2024 and includes:
- Reshaping of pond reservoir
- Installation of a new wet well
- Purchase and installation of a Torrent 3X Pumpstation
- Purchase and Installation of 2 (of the potential 3) pumps
- More than 6000’ of new underground piping
- 36 new HTM hydrants
- More than 8000’ of new power cable
- 34 new SMI Pedestals
- 12 SMI snowguns
Total Investment: $1.25MM
These investments were balanced to create the best possible snow production given the amount of money that we had to spend. Over-investing in one category might result in under-investing in another. On the other hand, it’s more expensive to perform work incrementally. There were careful considerations given to the economics of completing a job in full versus breaking it up into stages. Measured at the end of our 2023 Lost Season, our capacity pillars stood as follows on a 0-100% scale, with 100% being the fully executed snowmaking plan: Water 30% Pumping 22% Piping 15% Electrical 15% Snowmaking 10% After the completion of Stage 1, our pillars will have improved to: Water 50% Pumping 67% Piping 100% Electrical 100% Snowmaking 45%.
We don’t fully know how big of an improvement we will realize in our capacity to make snow, but calculations point to a greater than 300% increase in overall snowmaking capacity. And we can do more!
I am stoked! Is there anything I can do to help?
Oh yeah! The improvements we’ve made allow us to add more snowmakers to our system. We’re no longer limited by how many machines we can supply with adequate water and pumping pressure. Would you like to help us purchase another snowgun? Each one costs $29,000, which is why we need your help! Every additional gun we add to our system literally takes hours off our Time Needed to Open clock. It’s a big deal!
If you’re interested in speaking more about it you can reach out to Aric, our Campaign Chair, at ajarmbru78@gmail.com.
Eating-Sleeping-Breathing Snow, Mt. Holiday
