Panorama Resort brings out the big guns

What's made in Italy, top of its class, fan cooled, comes in racing yellow and can do over 200 gallons per minute?!  A Ferrari?  No, the new snow guns at Panorama Resort.

Maybe I was a little misleading with the title, but gallons per minute should have been a sure giveaway. Yes I am talking snow guns. You would never know though, the way Panorama's Snowmaking Manager Jamie King, and mountain crew, talk about the addition of three new T10 TechnoAlpin fan type snow guns. Like an aficionado of fine cars, Jamie is to excellent snowmaking equipment.

He goes on to tell me about the new arrivals at Panorama and how he can't wait for the temperature to drop so he can take them for a spin on the test track, er...for a blast on the mountain.

"These new guns are the ultimate. Panorama is the only resort in western Canada to have the T10's and only one other ski area in the East has them AND we got three," exclaims King. "With a flow rate of 200 gallons per minute they out shoot anything else on the market. Even our new TechnoAlpin's we received last year can only go 140 gallons per minute."

Cutting through the snowmaker jargon, what this actually means is that the new guns can make a lot of snow real fast. Think like 3 to 4 times as much snow in the same amount of time as the tall skinny aluminum tower type snow guns.

More on the  awesomeness of these new guns. High tech...you better believe it. Each fan gun has its own weather centre and can be fully automated. They can turn on and off by themselves, they can increase or decrease water flow depending on temperatures and they can oscillate by themselves to cover a larger area. How cool is this? Jamie explains "all of our fan guns can be controlled and monitored by my iPhone5. Also, if we ever run into problems with them both the US based office and the factory in Italy can diagnose the problem and immediately ship parts if needed."

"They are also whisper quiet compared to some of the other noisemakers on the market, which will make for a more pleasant experience for guests. Oh...and did I tell you? They also have this cool technology where they spin the water out of the nozzles to make drier snow...And..." I could tell Jamie loved his job and was super stoked to get them running and start making snow.

Snowmaking at Panorama has always been an evolving state-of-the-art affair. Not only is Jamie the proud operator of the new Italian beauties, but the resort has also expanded its snowmaking system with new pipes laid over to Ski Tip Way and Stringer at the bottom of Founder's Ridge.

Based on an interview conducted by Panorama’s Jamie Hurschler.