BY DOUG ALDEN
The Associated Press
MANSFIELD, Ohio -- The temperature is hovering around 20 degrees and Jeff McFarland is hard at work, dragging a hose he hooks up to a giant snow-gun. Just another holiday at Snow Trails ski area.
"You get used to it," he said Christmas Eve. "It's usually a pretty quiet night."
Vail, it isn't. Here at Snow Trails, about halfway between Columbus and Cleveland, there are 50 acres of skiing. The longest run is just more than a half-mile. That's compared with the Colorado resort, which has more than 4,600 acres of skiable terrain; its longest trail runs 4.5 miles.
Skiers throughout Ohio count on Mr. McFarland and his crew to crank out man-made snow -- particularly when warm temperatures reach deep into December. Highs were in the 60s and didn't consistently cool off to below freezing until early in the week.
Mr. McFarland and workers at Ohio's more than six other ski areas fired up the snow guns as soon as it was cold enough.
"When it's feast or famine like this you just go at it as fast as you can," Mr. McFarland said. "You've got to fight the weather. That's our main boss right there. I don't care what the boss up there pays you or says to you, you can't do anything until the main guy upstairs says so."
So Mr. McFarland, who bounces around the slopes in his snow cat, and the rest of the work crews have spent the week firing up Snow Trails' 28 snow guns. The workers have given some of the guns names, like "Bertha" and "Nina."
The guns resemble giant barrels on top of 10-foot stands. Every minute, they can spray up to 2,200 gallons of water more than 30 feet into the air. The fine spray freezes into small crystals and falls to the ground.
They can cover an acre of ground with up to a foot of snow within an hour, while each uses enough electricity to power a small house. "Ohio Edison likes us when it gets to this time of year," Mr. McFarland said.
Snow Trails opened two of its 12 trails Wednesday and hoped to be running close to full capacity by Saturday.
Mr. McFarland and a crew of three took the second Christmas Eve shift. On Friday, with the ski area closed, six crews of four split the day during four-hour shifts.
Even though they have to work, crews don't lose the holiday spirit. Every year, they put up a colored light display in the shape of a Christmas tree at the top of Mount Mansfield, Snow Trails' longest run at about 3,000 feet.
With any luck, the area hopes to get as many as 1,000 people today. During a typical weekend day during January or February, the resort could host up to 4,000.
"We're just trying to get as many trails open as we can," said General Manager Terry Carto.
