Our New Favorite Pre-Winter Trend? Ski Resort Snow Gun Impressions
Quick! Before you read any further, pause, take a moment, and do your very best snow gun/snowmaking machine impression.
Now, it’s time for some points of reference.
Hunter Mountain, New York, recently tasked its staff with imitating snow guns. The team produced some wide-ranging—and hilarious—results. Tap or click below to watch. Trust us, it’s worth your time.
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These are all quite good, but I think I know which is my favorite.
Trent Poole, Hunter Mountain’s General Manager, nailed it. Something about the drone he produced fully encapsulated the dull roar of snow guns. If I listened to the audio of Trent’s impression, I might even be convinced that it was coming from a real snow gun.
Still, the member of Hunter Mountain’s lift maintenance team deserves props for filling his mouth with water and spraying it through the air, just like a snow gun does. You gotta respect that commitment.
Hunter Mountain’s staff are, of course, not just sitting around pretending to be snow guns. They’re also getting ready for the season ahead, even if it’s still a few months away. Last year, the ski resort opened on December 1, 2024, so the start of winter likely isn’t too far away.
Photo: Hunter Mountain
At other mountains, it could start even sooner. Some ski resorts in Colorado, like Keystone, are eyeing a mid-October opening date, weather and conditions permitting.
In the meantime, Hunter Mountain may have debuted what could become a new favorite pre-season diversion. Snow guns are a ubiquitous part of the ski experience, so why not work on pretending to be one?
It raises more options, too. Gondola impressions, snowcat impressions, ski impressions (this probably wouldn’t differ much from planking, to be honest)—the list goes on. Truly skilled contortionists could probably pretend to be an avalanche probe, too, if they really tried. A degree in modern dance might help here.
Soon, though, we’ll finally be back on snow. Then, we can take a break from obsessively refreshing the forecast, dissecting long-range weather outlooks, and participating in whatever other gripping pre-season rituals we might have, like trying to act like a chairlift. It’ll be time to do what this is actually all about: going skiing.
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