Alta Ski Area general manager, Onno Wieringa, weighs in on how things are going as we pass the halfway point of the 2015-2016 season
Here we are a little past the halfway point of our ski season. Our snowfall is at about 95% of the 35 year average and water is at about 85%.
Every summer we make changes at Alta and we always hope that they are viewed and used as improvements. This past summer we did a major renovation of the west end of the Albion Day Lodge and put in a lift-to-parking-lot elevator. Changes like these aren't necessarily noticed as much since they simply become part of our smooth flowing base area operations.
We also made our first foray into producing electricity. We had concerns that the solar panels would be over budget, that they'd look bad, be too shiny, etc. But not one of those concerns has come to pass and as the winter sun gets a little stronger the panels just keep on producing a bit more power.
Our hybrid, diesel/electric snowcat is up and running well! While we will have to tally up the fuel consumption, operating and maintenance costs at the end of the season, the "green machine" is the right thing for us to do.
We continue to study the feasibility of installing a micro hydro power plant that would run for a couple of months every year off of the excess water from Cecret Lake once it is full. Stay tuned for more information on this.
While it is nice to have a little sunshine for a few days, we're really itching to see the next half of our annual average snowfall.