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Don’t eat the snow on the slopes at Yellowstone Club in Montana

By Brian Miller

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, CA - APRIL 15: Though snow conditions at the top of Heavenly Mountain Resort are good, skiers are noticing a number of dry spots as they venture up the gondola on April 15, 2021, in South Lake Tahoe, California. With Sierra Nevada snowpack levels at less than 60% of normal for the year, California's principal source of drinking and agricultural water has pushed much of the state into a "severe" or "extreme" drought situation. (Photo by George Rose/Getty Images)
SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, CA - APRIL 15: Though snow conditions at the top of Heavenly Mountain Resort are good, skiers are noticing a number of dry spots as they venture up the gondola on April 15, 2021, in South Lake Tahoe, California. With Sierra Nevada snowpack levels at less than 60% of normal for the year, California's principal source of drinking and agricultural water has pushed much of the state into a "severe" or "extreme" drought situation. (Photo by George Rose/Getty Images) /
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It is widely known that ski resorts will make snow to cover their slopes but at Yellowstone Club in Montana, they want you to not eat it.

Montana’s Yellowstone Club, a ski resort near Yellowstone National Park will be using treated water from the local treatment plant to make their snow. In other words, they will be using wastewater, human wastewater. For some reason, the little kid inside me finds it ironic that Yellowstone will have yellow-snow.

This isn’t the first resort to use this method but it is the first in Montana. The process is already used at ski resorts in Arizona according to an article on Weather.com.

It actually makes a lot of sense, to be honest. As the “snow” melts, it will replenish the local watersheds, it as after all water.

The region will benefit from the process as well. The process won’t be used to fill the slopes but instead, compliment the fresh fallen ‘real’ snow during early and late ski seasons when the slopes may not be consistently full of white powder.

The Yellowstone Club is near Big Sky, Montana and according to the report, the club will use 25 million gallons of treated water to fill the slopes and an expansion. The Club and officials cite the fact that the wastewater has been increasing over the years and has been maintained in “retention ponds”. This will help eliminate some of that burden.

It will be interesting to see if other ski resorts around the country will start to adopt similar methods of making snow. As the ski seasons take a hit due to shorter operating seasons, this could be an easy solution that puts money back into the local economy while efficiently and safely keeping resorts operable.

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Ski resorts in many states and cities are huge to tourism and in some cases, the ski season is what keeps small towns operating and afloat all year long so finding solutions to any lack of snow falling from the sky would be beneficial. But yeah, eating it may not be wise.

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