Light on the snowmaking

You can't talk about a ski resort without talking about snow! The snowmaking is essential in order to offer beautiful and stable conditions, especially at the beginning of the season where it not only allows the season to start earlier, but also provides a fairly stable base that will last until spring skiing.

We shed light on this operation that often happens behind the scenes in the mountains!

Snowmaking is not magic, however, and requires specific conditions in order to be effective. Regardless of the performance of a snowmaking system, it is Mother Nature who has the last word since it is the ratio between the cold and the humidity of the air that will allow a good snowmaking.

The air temperature must be cold and the humidity low so that the water that will come out of the cannons turns into quality snow.

Ideal conditions would be an air temperature of -12°C and humidity of 0%. So, if it is -10°C, but the humidity is very high, it will not be good for snowmaking.

We have about 300 snow cannons of different types in the mountains: cannons with fixed heads, cannons with different heads and fan cannons.

Having different types of snow cannons is essential in order to be able to adapt to the different microclimates on the mountain. By having a versatile fleet that offers different water/air ratios, it allows us to position ourselves in different places on the mountain depending on the temperatures and winds.

For its part, the fan-type cannon has the advantage of producing air without the need for the energy of an air compressor. It therefore only needs to be supplied with water. We have between 3 and 4 fan guns, a good ratio for the area of the mountain!

Every year we make improvements to our snowmaking system, whether by expanding our fleet of snow cannons, investing in our pipes, pumps and snow groomers and integrating new technologies.

This is more than 3 million dollars invested in recent years, and more than 2 million planned for next year.