When the snow isn’t falling at some Colorado ski areas, the directive is simple.  Go find it.  “We gotta do what we gotta do,” said Tim Kerrigan, vice president of mountain maintenance at Ski Cooper.  And it might sound simple, but finding snow and harvesting it is no simple task a t the ski area near Leadville.  In what has been a historically dry start to the state’s ski season, snowmobiles here and elsewhere have fanned out in search of higher drifts and stashes preserved under the shade of trees. The snowmobiles have been pulling tubs to be filled with shoveled snow and unloaded across trails that have been all too patchy early into the season.  “It’s strenuous,” Kerrigan says. “I probably only get about two hours of the crew before they’re tired. It’s manual labor. It’s not easy.”  That’s snow farming — not easy but essential in times like these.  The aim: “Just trying to capitalize on every flake that Mother Nature provides,” said Scott Pressly, Monarch Mountain’s director of mountain operations. “And yeah, this year especially we’ve really tried to capitalize.” Transporting snow via snowmobile at Wolf Creek Ski Area. (Courtesy of Keith Pitcher) Cooper and Monarch are a couple of Colorado’s last ski areas that do not make snow — lacking the benefit of bigger resorts that turn on snow guns to build up early season bases. Still, amid a December that saw statewide snowpack at some of the lowest levels since record keeping began in the 1980s, even the most equipped resorts struggled to open terrain and lifts ahead of the holidays.  Which is why onlookers might have been surprised by numbers out of Monarch Mountain early this month: Almost all trails and lifts were open. This was while Monarch depended entirely on snowfall that was about as few and far between as Pressly can remember over his 27 Decembers at the mountain.  He and his team depend on something else: “institutional knowledge,” he explained, speaking like a farmer tending to his crops.  “A lot of us have been here for decades,” Pressly said, “and we’re familiar with how these storms blow through and what they do to our mountain based on aspect and elevation and wind speeds. We’ve got that historical knowledge of what happens when certain types of events come though.”  And so they know where to put fences. Some are installed closer to the Continental Divide while others made of wood and wire are strategically rolled out ahead of storms. Fencing at Monarch Mountain is meant to keep snow from blowing off the mountain and storing it in places where it can be spread onto trails. (Courtesy of Monarch Mountain) Along some highways, such fences are meant to block snow from blowing into traffic. At Monarch, they are meant to block snow from blowing off the mountain or down to the parking lot, instead forming piles to be spread out by snowcat and transported to trails in need.  Other resorts fire snow guns to form those spreadable piles. “Instead of guns that require all that electricity and all that water, we’re just relying on what Mother Nature provides us between the snow and the wind and we end up with the same kind of operation,” Pressly said.  But the operation indeed depends on that deep knowledge of the mountain, the parts that favor snow, and a careful analysis of the forecast. The way the wind blows determines the way those mobile fences are rolled out. It might take a crew an hour to get one in place, sometimes by hammering posts into the ground. “It’s a job,” Pressly said one recent day that saw workers from the parking lot and lodge help uphill with fences.  Other days see the general manager and top administration help, Pressly said. “It’s definitely a team effort. I think to some degree we’re all snow farmers, putting on the overalls.”  Rolling out fences for snow farming at Monarch Mountain. (Courtesy of Monarch Mountain) The same collaboration is seen at Wolf Creek Ski Area in southwest Colorado. The family-owned ski area makes some snow, “but because we don’t have an endless supply of water, it’s pretty limited,” said Rosanne Pitcher of the owning family.  So it might’ve been another surprising report early this month: In a particularly parched part of the state, Wolf Creek had opened 100% of its terrain. “Not without a lot of hard work from our crew,” Pitcher said.  Similar to those at Ski Cooper, crews were driving snowmobiles around trees and higher drifts and filling 50-gallon barrels to dump across runs. Others along steep hillsides rolled out Visqueen sheets and shoveled snow that slid down to groomable terrain. And others with snowblowers have blown snow into wide loaders that transport it to sunny, exposed parts of runs.  “It’s been like a whole science,” Pitcher said. “If you have everything covered by the next time it snows, it just really helps when it’s landing on snow and not bare ground.”  Because bare ground and dirt absorbs sunlight, melting any snow around.  “Whenever my guys are in my shop and go up the hill, I tell them to wipe their boots off before they go, because I don’t even want people tracking mud on the snow,” said Kerrigan at Cooper. “We’re even conscious about that.”  Among nearly 30 years at the ski area, this time has “been one of my roughest” in terms of snow, Kerrigan said. In early December, he has commonly harvested snow from the parking lot via a front loader and dumped it around the base. He said harvesting via snowmobiles is becoming more common, as it is at Wolf Creek.  “We’re even careful how we shovel it off the decks,” said owner Davey Pitcher. “We manage the snow as well as we can, because you’re never sure if you’re gonna get another storm or not.”  Harvesting snow at Wolf Creek Ski Area. (Courtesy of Keith Pitcher) Snowmaking has advanced over the years. Could snow farming? “I don’t know how to take it to the next level,” Kerrigan said. “But depending on whatever’s going on with the environment and global warming, we gotta pay more attention to it and be ready to move more snow when we have it.”  Pitcher has heard about special tarps that have been spread across snow in Europe to prevent melting. He has wondered about something like that to help snow farming. He has wondered about something else amid dry spells in recent years, the driest he can remember in his family’s ownership spanning four decades: “Is this the new norm?” The question begs another question at ski areas without snowmaking: Could it be introduced? The interest is mentioned in long-term plans at Monarch and Cooper, but yet to be fully explored is feasibility and governmental complexities regarding water.  Even if feasible, snowmaking “has its own challenges for sure,” Pressly said. “You’re out there in the middle of the night (when temperatures are lowest), moving high-pressure hoses around, driving snowmobiles in the dark. Those teams are working hard too for sure.”  Just differently than snow farmers, who take a certain pride. “We definitely feel like natural snow is a much better product, even in a lean year,” Pressly said.  At Cooper, Kerrigan likes to think customers appreciate the difference. This seemed to be true the other day.  “We were moving snow into an area and dumping it and spreading it out, and we had customers stopping by and helping us out with their skis, packing down this snow,” Kerrigan said. “They were grateful and just trying to help. Farmed snow waiting to be smoothed and packed at Ski Cooper. (Courtesy of Ski Cooper) Transporting snow at Monarch Mountain. (Courtesy of Monarch Mountain) Stockpiling snow at Ski Cooper’s to be transported uphill. (Courtesy of Ski Cooper) ...read more read less