WILDWOOD, Mo. — It's feeling a lot like Christmas, but it sure doesn't look like it at St. Louis' only ski resort. The hum of snowmaking machines at Hidden Valley in Wildwood hasn't been heard since last season. The slopes are a mix of brown and green.
"We are going to start tonight," Hidden Valley General Manager Tony Santora told 5 On Your Side on Friday. "At 9 o'clock we'll be firing up the snow guns and making snow."
The snow team will be working through the weekend and every night to get enough on the slopes to open. Santora says what is currently brown and green will be a winter wonderland in no time.
It takes a meteorological equation to get the snowmakers working.
"It's actually just a little bit more than just the temperature for snowmaking," Santora said. "We look at something called the wet bulb which takes temperature and humidity into the equation which tells us what the good conditions are to make snow."
Wet bulb temperature or not, there is one rule of thumb for quality snowmaking: the colder the better.
"We are generally looking for freezing, under 32 degrees and then the lower the humidity the better," Santora said. "As it gets colder, the humidity can be higher and once we are down into the teens, that's prime snowmaking conditions where we can get really good snow going."
When everyone else in St. Louis looks at next week's forecast with dread, Hidden Valley's team is thrilled to see 20s and teens.
"We are excited about the weather we are seeing for next week and excited to be open for Christmas for sure," Santora said, smiling.
You heard that right: open sometime next week.