The Pajarito Water Dream Team

Yesterday, we had an impressive group on the mountain – it was like Pajarito’s Water Dream Team:

Our hydrology expert – who earned his doctorate in hydrology – has worked extensively not only with Pajarito but also with Sipapu as well. He completed the augmentation plan for Pajarito several years ago and is responsible for the success of the weir at the bottom of the Mother Lift.

Our pond engineer designed Pajarito’s 10-million gallon holding pond and was extremely involved in the previous pond building process.

Former Los Alamos Ski Club president George Lawrence is a renowned local expert when it comes to water at Pajarito Mountain. He not only knows the ski area’s history, but he was instrumental in the design of the original pond.

John Paul Bradley is Sipapu’s mountain manager and an incredible wealth of expertise when it comes to snowmaking and its infrastructure. In our experience at Sipapu, JP has truly mastered the art of snowmaking, and he’s already applying his knowledge at Pajarito.

Our general manager, Tom Long, provides vast insight on the existing infrastructure and mountain conditions. He also has significant knowledge and experience with securing permits, which will be incredibly helpful throughout this process.

Mike Green, Pajarito’s Mountain Operations Manager, was also on hand to offer his knowledge about the mountain and Pajarito’s snowmaking system.

Our meeting was extremely productive and we used that time to ensure we understood our priorities and our goals. I’m pleased to report that everyone at yesterday’s meeting is on board with our objectives. We also spent a significant amount of time verifying previously-identified locations to collect and store water, and we strategized several options on how to successfully collect more water.

Now that we’ve all met, we’re going to put some pen to paper and work up some options to make these ideas a reality at Pajarito. We will continue to keep you updated here.