Dear Bum,
It would be fun for you to do an article sometime on the economics of running an XC ski center. At 175,000 gallons of water per acre-foot of machine made snow plus the pumps, aircompressors, all night labor, etc. snowmaking is not economical or fun for most of us. I really applaud anyone who can do it, though. As your pictures show, the stuff is GREAT for races and events when there is no alternative. Others in the area who have the capability are Pineland and Black Mountain, both Libra funded centers. It is rapidly getting to the point where there are very few "for profit" xc centers in Maine...and most of those don't see much profit!

Hi Scott,
Thanks very much for the very positive "blog entry" on our sprint races here at Great Glen last Sunday. We just concluded a series of high school races here today as well. It's great to see some activity out here on the snow after all the warm weather we've been suffering through.
We've found manmade snow to be extremely durable and able to withstand rain and warm weather pretty well. Of course it won't replace the real thing at most Nordic centers but for us it sure beats having no business at all. Our system is operable by one person once they're up to speed on it and so is quite economical to run after the initial investment. We're demo-ing another machine this week and will be making snow on our tubing hill as well as on the trails. Hope to see you out here this winter.