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.

These will be placed in strategic positions so that we can be more efficient, and above all, faster when making snow. Fixed cannons are very interesting since it means that our teams have much less equipment to move. Not to mention that these have poles 30 feet high, allowing for better snow quality.

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!

In the summer of 2018, the station modernized its system, including the addition of a high pressure line and the replacement of obsolete water pipes.

This notably made it possible to snow in certain areas which had been natural until then, such as the 4 Km track, the entire Alfred-Desroches slope and the Family track. Since then, these slopes can be served by snow cannons and, above all, skied earlier and for longer!

For the 2022-23 season, around twenty fixed snow cannons and two fan cannons were purchased by the resort and installed on more complex slopes to snow, such as the top of Trois-Ruisseaux.

And this year, Mont-Orford is investing $2 million in snowmaking with the new pump at the pumping station and the purchase of numerous fixed snow cannons.

Investments in recent years represent more than 6 million dollars!

Discover our investment