The Western United States is moving through one of the worst snow droughts in recorded history, and ski resorts are not waiting around to see whether next winter is any better. Across the region, operators are adopting a technique long practiced in Europe but still relatively new to American slopes: snow farming. The idea is straightforward enough. Make snow when the conditions are right, store it carefully, and deploy it when the season begins.
What snow farming actually involves
Snow farming works by producing machine-made snow during periods of sustained cold, typically when temperatures are low and humidity is minimal. Resorts pile the snow high, sometimes reaching two to three stories, and then cover the mounds with insulated polystyrene mats designed to shield the stockpile from sun and rain throughout the warmer months. When fall arrives, that stored snow gets spread across trails and runs to give the season a head start regardless of what the weather is doing at the time.
The efficiency gap between cold-weather and warm-weather snowmaking is significant. A snow gun operating near freezing, around 27 or 28 degrees Fahrenheit, may produce only about a 2-foot accumulation. That same gun running in single-digit temperatures can generate an 8-foot pile. Producing snow in warmer conditions also requires considerably more energy, which makes the economics of off-peak snowmaking difficult to justify. Farming snow during the coldest nights of late winter sidesteps that problem entirely.
How the snowpack holds up over summer
The stored snow does shrink. A pile covered through the summer months typically loses around 20% of its mass by the time fall rolls around. But the quality of what remains is generally high, particularly when the snow was produced in cold conditions. That tradeoff is one most resort operators appear willing to accept.
Ski areas in Wisconsin, Idaho and Utah have all begun experimenting with the method in recent seasons, reflecting a broader recognition across the industry that natural snowfall alone can no longer be counted on to open and sustain a ski season.
The Soldier Hollow experiment and the 2034 Olympics
One of the more closely watched tests is underway at Soldier Hollow Nordic Center, a venue outside Salt Lake City that served as a competition site during the 2002 Winter Olympics and is already on the list of potential venues for the 2034 Games. The center invested roughly $300,000 in a snow farming system from Finnish company Snow Secure, whose insulated mats can cover a snow pile roughly the size of a football field.
The investment is partly practical and partly forward-looking. Around half of Soldier Hollow’s ski season currently depends on machine-made snow, and the facility’s general manager has described the snow farming setup as contingency planning specifically with 2034 in mind. A bad snow year during an Olympic winter would be difficult to manage without a reliable backup.
A warming industry looking for answers
This past winter ranked among the warmest or second-warmest on record for many Western resorts, contributing to early closures and shortened seasons across multiple states. The U.S. Drought Monitor has documented significant snow deficits throughout the region, and resort operators have become increasingly candid about the trajectory they see ahead.
If Soldier Hollow’s snow farming program performs as expected, the center hopes to be among the first Nordic skiing venues in the country to open next fall, with the stored snow providing a base that natural conditions alone could not guarantee. If that works, the facility plans to expand the system.
Snow farming does not solve the underlying problem. It is an adaptation to conditions that are already changing and expected to keep changing. But for resorts operating in marginal climates with shorter and warmer winters, it offers something concrete to build a season around.
