With $50 in parts, some time to assemble, and a borrowed pressure washer and air compressor, you can be making snow in your backyard any time you want (and the temperature is below 30 degrees).

Check it out, and if you build one, send us some pics.

http://www.snsnowmaking.com/

We woke to snow on the peaks in Crested Butte this morning. These photos, taken by local photographer Rob Pennie, were shot from Crested Butte South looking toward Crested Butte Mountain Resort. Winter is on its way!

“What a difference a storm makes,” said Krista Parry, director of marketing and communications for Park City Mountain Resort. “It just takes one big storm, like this one, to get the mountain in excellent shape.”

Park City Mountain Resort is scheduled to open Crescent, Thaynes and Pioneer lifts on Monday, December 14 to accompany the five lifts that are already running. The Resort’s snow safety and slope maintenance teams are working feverishly to open the majority of the terrain served via these lifts, once the snow safety team deems them safe. McConkey’s lift is scheduled to open on Tuesday, December 15.

Click the following link for a video showcasing the work required to open terrain after a storm of this magnitude: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5SY22OXy3s.

About Park City Mountain Resort
Park City Mountain Resort, the most accessible mountain resort in North America, is located in the heart of Park City, Utah and is only a 40-minute drive from the Salt Lake City International Airport. With 3,300 acres of unspoiled terrain, the Resort offers groomed Signature Runs™, bumps, powder, trees, eight peaks, nine bowls, four terrain parks, and the Eagle Superpipe. Park City Mountain Resort was once again ranked a top-five resort by the readers of SKI and Transworld Snowboarding magazines and a top-10 ski resort in North America by Conde Nast Traveler. For more information, visit www.parkcitymountain.com or call (800) 222-PARK.

Still no riding in Steamboat, but I took a short snow walk, and then started setting up for the split board how-to article.

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“30 Days on the Road” is a blog series tracking my travel for thirty days in October and November; from leaving Alaska on October 27th until Steamboat opens on November 25th. Due to a series of cool opportunities I don’t have to be back at a “real job” until 11/26th, and after a summer that seemed way too long, I’ll be making the most of my free month with as much snow and snow industry fun as I can cram in. The goal is two-fold, first to get you pumped about the upcoming season, and two to help keep track of time as I wander aimlessly for a month.

I’ll also be posting updates on Facebook and Twitter, so make sure and check out the action there too.

The day started in Boulder at 7 am with a quick check to see if the foot of snow on the ground was going to mess with travel out of Denver. Aside from Frontier cancelling a few flights everything looked good, so at 7:30 am I was out the door and on my way to catch the RTD Skyride bus back to Denver. The bus was thirty minutes late, but given the road conditions that was probably pretty good.

Arriving at DIA at 9:30 am for a 10:20 am flight is what I would call “pushing it.” Denver’s airport is huge, and depending on the wait at security can definitely take that full 2 hours they warn you about. Luckily for me, security was running fast, and by the time I got through the metal detectors it didn’t matter anyways, as United had delayed the flight for an hour. One hour turned to two, but thanks to wireless internet I was able to use the time to prepare for the days ahead.

Leaving Colorado when it was dumping, especially only 24 hours after arriving, and when facing tweets from all over Colorado announcing snow depths, was no easy task mentally, but was proving just as difficult physically.

We finally left the ground a little after noon, and were on our way to Philly. The states on the East Coast always come across as a bit of a novelty to someone from Alaska. We fly into Philadelphia, drive to our hotels in Delaware, and go from there to the Gore facility in Maryland. You can hardly get from one city to another with those distances in AK, much less cross state lines.

A little travel weary, I was shuttled with 10 other bloggers and industry folk to the Gore Capability Center. When we told people we were coming out East to visit Gore, they often didn’t know who we were talking about until we added “You know, Gore-Tex.” While they’re best known in our circle for the Gore-Tex material used in outerwear, Gore has their materials in thousands of products throughout many industries. The Capability Center is a pretty cool facility Gore designed to communicate their brand and their products, in a detailed, yet accessible manner.

Then we received a short presentation about Gore’s new website/community they’re working on, and a fantastic dinner, before being shuttled to the hotel. Big day with Gore tomorrow, we’ll be checking out the factory, rain room and comfort chamber, footwear and gloves manufacturing, have a Q&A sesh at lunch, and then some other stuff planned for the afternoon. Pictures and tweets as I can, and another full update tomorrow night.

Continue to Day 3 of 30 Days on the Road

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“30 Days on the Road” is a blog series tracking my travel for thirty days in October and November; from leaving Alaska on October 27th until Steamboat opens on November 25th. Due to a series of cool opportunities I don’t have to be back at a “real job” until 11/26th, and after a summer that seemed way too long, I’ll be making the most of my free month with as much snow and snow industry fun as I can cram in. The goal is two-fold, first to get you pumped about the upcoming season, and two to help keep track of time as I wander aimlessly for a month.

I’ll also be posting updates on Facebook and Twitter, so make sure and check out the action there too.

Unfortunately, the camera cable was busted during travel today, so photos will have to wait until I can find a replacement.

Day 1 started with my plane taking off from the Fairbanks International Airport in AK at 1:10 am on Tuesday 10/27. After a snow-less fall (see Snow, Damnit, Snow), I moved my ticket up to escape the barren north (and to make the trip to Maryland to visit Gore possible). Monday, the day before my flight, the skies finally opened up and dropped several inches of dry fluffy snow in the hills. Figures…

The flight from Fairbanks to Denver (via Seattle) was awesomely uneventful, dropping me in Colorado at 10:30 am. Within hours the skies darkened, turned to rain, and finally snow. I like to think of it as a welcome home present. After a quick stop for lunch at the always essential Illegal Pete’s in Boulder, I killed some time catching up on emails and then hit the pillow, dreaming of powder.

Next up, snow tries to keep me from getting to the Gore Experience More Summit, in Snow and Gore: Day 2 of “30 Days on the Road”

Sun Peaks, BC (October 28, 2009) – Close to 60 centimetres of snow has fallen in the last 7 days and with another 15cm expected in the next 48 hours, Sun Peaks Resort is moving up their planned opening day to Saturday, November 14th, a week ahead of schedule!

“This is the earliest we have seen conditions like this and so to take advantage of this gift, we are going to move the planned opening day up to November 14,” says Jamie Tattersfield, Mountain Operations Manager at Sun Peaks. “We aim to open as many lifts and runs as possible.”

The Sun Peaks Slopes Department has been working diligently to pack all of the fresh snow down, and snow making efforts are continuing to build up the base on OSV, where the Austrian National Ski Team will be training next month. Mountain Operations says the snow making will likely move to the Terrain and Tube Parks in the next couple of weeks.

The final decision on what lifts and runs will be open will made on Monday, November 9.

Useful Links:
Sun Peaks Resort official website
Sun Peaks Media Library
Official Snow Bum website
Sun Peaks on Twitter
Sun Peaks on Facebook

About Sun Peaks
Sun Peaks Resort is a four season destination resort located in the interior of British Columbia near Kamloops. Recently declared the 2nd Best Ski Resort in Canada and 10th Best in North America by Condé Nast Traveller Magazine readers, Sun Peaks has three mountains which surround an intimate ski-in, ski-out village. In other seasons, Sun Peaks offers a diverse range of leisure activities including 18 holes of golf as well as numerous events and festivals. Sun Peaks Resort was the first ski resort in North America and is the only resort in Canada to receive the ISO 14001 designation recognizing the resorts environmental policies and practices. Sun Peaks can be accessed by two airport gateways – Kamloops (45 minutes) and Kelowna (2 1/2 hours) and by car, only a 4 ¼ hour drive separates Sun Peaks and Vancouver, B.C.

Old man winter sure is feeling frisky today with 8 inches of new snow overnight and it’s still coming down. The timing couldn’t be better, with opening day only three weeks away on November 18 and the best early season deal in our 70 year history just announced yesterday — Ski Free in Winter Park. The deal is sweet. Stay two nights or more between opening day and Christmas and get a free lift ticket for each night stayed. For full details, and to book online, visit PlayWinterPark.com.

So, keep doing your snow dances and we’ll see you on opening day!

P.S. For photos from today’s storm and to view live webcams, view our online galleries.

The plan is for the Discovery Lift to run from 10am-4p both Saturday and Sunday and the trail will have a smattering of boxes and other features. Lift tickets will be $10 or a donation of 10 non-perishable food items. All proceeds will go to the Deerfield Valley Food Pantry.

Mount Snow was recently voted the #1 park and #1 resort in the east by Transworld Snowboarding readers.

For updated snow conditions please go to www.mountsnow.com.