Snow Job

Virginia's Allegheny Mountains, 160 miles southwest of Washington, where snow usually comes only in unreliable flurries, seems an unlikely spot for a ski resort. Yet last weekend the stately rooms of The Homestead resort were crowded with the parka-and-stretch-pants set. It is the Southland's winter sport resort, and one thing is sure: there should always be snow. Reason: snow machines, an expensive network of pipes, hoses and nozzles lining the ski trails. Water, atomized by a compressed air blast, turns into snow crystals as it sprays out into below-freezing temperatures. Not only are the machines making of skiing a new Southern custom, but they are bailing out northern areas that have been losing money for lack of steady snow. For the beginner or afternoon skier, they are also creating a new set of small ski slopes

Business Booster. The Homestead turned to skiing to fill its rooms in winter, when business drops from 500 guests a day during summer to 30. Now, after investing $376,000 in clearing trails, installing a ski lift and a snow machine, winter business is up to 150 guests a day. Homestead's success has encouraged other investors to plan a resort near Gatlinburg, Tenn. The investors are dickering with Larchmont Engineering, Lexington, Mass., the largest manufacturer of snow makers, for machines.

In the North the machines are developing a new class of Sunday skiers who do not have the time to spend traveling to the big slopes where the more skilled play. William Ostrander, a Detroit electrician, started Summit Ski Club on 135 hilly acres not far from the city. But in the first year lack of snow forced him to close for two-thirds of the season, and he had only 600 customers. After spending $15,000 on a snow machine, he gets 10,000 skiers in an eleven-week season, now nets about 25% on his $100,000 total investment. "Without that machine we wouldn't be in business," he says. One of the most ambitious snow jobs is the result of $225,000 spent by Don Soviero, a former New York attorney, for equipment to cover 36 acres on Massachusetts' Mt. Bousquet, an area of uncertain snows. Says Soviero: "While everyone else is crying, we have never lost money,'' though his artificial snow costs $1,000 a day.

Disaster Area. Even in normally heavy snowfall areas, machines are a good investment. Wisconsin, which usually has plenty of snow in its ski areas, has had hardly a flake this season, despite the snow that buried cities farther south and in the East.

At Mt. Telemark. which by this time last year had 23,500 skiers, more than any resort between Lake Michigan and the Rockies, only 300 have showed up this year. Businessmen in the area figure that they have lost $1,000,000 already this season. Owner Anthony Wise and his partner have poured $500,000 into building up Telemark and cannot borrow any more, so they have asked the Governor to declare it a disaster area. That way Wise hopes he can get a $250,000 federal emergency loan to pay his creditors and spend $150,000 on snow machines to end his snow worries. Another Wisconsinite, Ted Motschman, whose Mt. LaCrosse Ski Area has one of the few snow machines in the state, says: "We've been able to get more than 50 days of skiing so far, and we've only had about four inches of natural snow. Not having a snow machine is like building a building and not taking out fire insurance.''

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.