Bolton - November 22, 2008
With all the talk about fan vs. compressed air snowmaking, we thought we would do some scientific study and compare the multiple methods. Here you see a ground based fan gun. We found it was actually tolerably quiet. You can see the whale of snow in the background. The snow under foot provided good grip under our skins during the ascent. It was supportive and the K-9 companion in our group was not punching through the upper crust.
Here, you see a ground based compressed air gun. There were 3-4 of these within sight of this one, even with the reduced visibility from all the water in the air. These were quite loud, preventing most conversation as we skinned by. The snow was less pleasant than the fan-created snow we had experienced just yards below.
The tower mounted compressed air guns were equally as loud as the ground ones. The biggest advantage we saw was that we could skin right next to them without having to avoid hoses and without getting caked in frozen water. This snow was the least pleasant to skin on and created a nightmare posthole scenario for our four legged friend.
