As I was skiing at Canaan this week I noticed a lot of different types of snowmaking equipment used. They had tower mounted Super Polecats and ground fan guns of Polecats and TechoAlpine on certain trails. What had me thinking as I skied all the open terrain is their set up of equipment used. The core TTB trail Upper Canaan Curve, Chute, Valley View and Face had the old airhog ground and mounted guns.

Why would an area still be using old style guns when technology is far more advanced and more energy efficient? Yes, I know...management is lousy would be the response. 

Between TLine and Wisp, they use on board compressers for their tower mounted guns. With the existing electrical system on the core trails at Canaan, you would be able to have more tower guns TTB if you had the compressers on board, meaning faster trail openings. 

Here is where the questions comes in, would having more tower mounted guns with the onboard compressers be more productive than the tower mounted fan guns? 

I thought about it from cost standpoint, using TechoAlpine as the example how many tower guns would you be able buy to equal one fan gun? With those tower guns would the output combined be more, less or the same as one fan gun?

It something to think about as many have complained about how slow Canaan is to open terrain. What is maximum number of guns Canaan can run at one time currently? By switching to more efficient technology for snowmaking, would they be able to increase the number of guns running at one time? I would definitely say yes.  Do they use electrical or diesel compressers? By switching to on board compressers on the tower, would the electric cost be justified to make the switch. I looked at the maintenance on the current system for the compressers and chilling tower if they have one to cool air before goes out on the hill.

It is a fuel for thought as we see Canaan infrastructure fall further behind with the lack of investment. 

Tower Fans re: 50,000 each estimated 

they have the electric compressor

Still need pumped and chilled water

An Impulse R5 wand head is 5000$

need compressed air and chilled water

Some resorts put money into systems all the time over many years.

Using TLine as an example,  I understand their system does not have air lines adjacent the water. Visually from the number of times I have been there, that looks to be the case. They use SMI Super Polecats and SMI Grizzly Low E stick w/ onboard compressers on a majority of the terrain.  Off the Wall and The Drop look to have the old airless HKD tower guns on them.

As mentioned the HKD Impluse R5 is a major step up from the old gun which look to be old Ratnik guns. Even if they switch to that type of guns they would additional air for more guns to run at once. 

Using Wisp's Possum Trail which is now automated with TechoAlpine Lance's with onboard compressers has been major upgrade to old system they had on it.  

Will Canaan ever go to an automated system probably not, I do believe it would be a smart move to save on labor and set up time of course. 

$50k seems close to correct from what I've read as far as the cost of fan gun including installation.  When installing an airless systems or water/air system, in addition to the gun, the following utilities are required for each system:

AIRLESS SNOW MAKING WITH FAN GUNS

1) Water - typically welded steel pipe to withstand the pressure and temperature changes.

2) Electricity - to run the fan gun (or stick gun with on-board compressor)

3) Data line - so that fan gun can be operated, remotely.  Typically, one ductbank would carry the electric and data conductors.

Operation - less labor required since the fan gun can be operated remotely 

WATER/ AIR SYSTEM

1) Water - typically welded steel pipe to withstand the pressure and temperature changes.

2) Compressed Air - again, typically welded steel pipe. Also need air cooler since compressing air heats up the air. Compressors need to be large enough to overcome all of the energy loss in the air piping going to each stick gun.

Operation - each gun needs to be turned on manually and turned off manually each time they are used. At that time, the snow makers will adjust the air/water mix to get the optimal snow crystals. 

I don't really know the answer but my take would be it costs more to install the airless system but cost less to operate. I think the airless system (fan guns or stick guns with on-board compressors) provide more operational flexibility, makes better snow and requires significantly less labor. I would assume that is why Timberline installed an airless system when the replaced the old system. Same with Hidden Valley in 2008 when the old air/water system was replaced with Techo Alpin fan guns. Seven Springs has a huge water/air system but over the years they have added fan guns at various locations. That said, 7S has HUGE compressors to run that immense system.