Ski Ward again leads the way in opening North America’s ski season, thanks to high-tech snow machine

Ski Ward, a small ski area operating in Shrewsbury since 1939, once again started its season in October this year, becoming one of the first ski parks in North America to open.  “We have the snow, and we know people would like to ski, so why not push out the big snow pile and let people ski on it?” said Ski Ward Operations Manager Mikey LaCroix, a member of the family which has managed the ski area since 1990. For the past three years, the family-owned recreation site has been able to open for ski lessons in October, well before the first natural snow has begun to fall.  This has been all thanks to Latitude 90’s state-of-the-art snowmaking machine, said LaCroix. The company based in Quebec City produces machines able to produce powdery snow even when ambient temperatures are well above freezing.  While Ski Ward’s early openings have caught the attention of the wider ski and snowboard world, with publications like Powder Magazine and NewEnglandSkiIndustry.com declaring it to be the first lift-served ski slope in North America, it was never Ski Ward’s goal to be first, LaCroix said.  “We have our fall festival every year, usually the third weekend in October, where we have a bunch of bounce houses and activities like petting zoos,” he said. “We have to start making snow the first of October, or the week prior, to get open for our lesson program that starts on Nov. 1.” This year, Ski Ward’s season began on Oct. 18, after it started producing snow on Sep. 29, said LaCroix.  The Latitude 90 is able to push out snow at temperatures up to 77 degrees, according to its website, allowing Ski Ward to cover its primary beginner area with enough snow to ski or snowboard on. This section of the ski area is served by a carpet lift, rather than a chair lift. The small size of Ski Ward’s early-season operations brings some debate over whether they qualify to be declared as the first to open, although LaCroix pointed out Ski Ward has never actually claimed that title itself.  “All of a sudden we had all the publicity and all the articles writing that this ski area in Shrewsbury is the first to open,” he said. “And then you have all the haters online who say ‘Oh, it’s just a carpet.’ That’s fine for us, we’re not saying our summit is open. Summit is a pretty funny word for us anyways.” Ski Ward’s summit sits at an elevation of around 420 feet, about 210 feet above the altitude of its base.  The Latitude 90 system sits in a custom shipping container at the base of the hill, with pipes that blow it into a nearby pile, which is then pushed up the mountain with a snow groomer.  LaCroix said the machine can actually produce snow with ambient temperatures up to 85 degrees, although he noted at that temperature, it melts too quickly to be of any use. This compares to conventional snow-making equipment, where the wet-bulb temperature must be around 29 degrees for snow to be produced. With snow that's now been on the hill for weeks, Ski Ward’s public lesson programs are well underway. Private lessons will begin in the coming weeks. Looking ahead at the calendar, LaCroix said one of the biggest events for Ski Ward this year will be its annual Mountain Dew Vertical Challenge, a casual youth race event held this year on Feb. 22.  “It's more of a fun race rather than a competitive environment,” he said. “You got all the kids hopped up on Mountain Dew. It's a fun time.” Eric Casey is the managing editor at Worcester Business Journal, who primarily covers the manufacturing and real estate industries.