Fake Snow, Real Money: The High-Tech Fight to Save California Skiing

This Bloomberg Business article has great information on the future (and challenges) of the ski business.

Among the interesting facts presented:

• In Sochi, for the 2014 Winter Olympics they used Finnish snow making equipment that let them make “snow” up to 62º F.
• In ideal conditions, snowmakers can fabricate winter at the rate of a foot of snow over 43 acres in just 12 hours at Heavenly.
• Among the 19 cities that have hosted the winter Olympics—including Calgary, Chamonix, Nagano, and Oslo—the average February temperature is up to 46 degrees, up from 32 in the 1920s.
• Within a decade, 300 of the 470 U.S. ski resorts could be gone.

That last point is interesting. If the number of ski resorts dwindles, the survivors probably prosper — and it’s usually the big guys who survive. Hello Vail.

Looks like it’s time to double down on that 3rd home you’ve been looking at in The Colony.