{"id":1316769,"date":"2019-11-16T21:43:58","date_gmt":"2019-11-17T04:43:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/?p=990714"},"modified":"2019-11-16T21:43:58","modified_gmt":"2019-11-17T04:43:58","slug":"sunday-profile-snowmaking-with-sunlights-mike-baumli","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/local-news\/sunday-profile-snowmaking-with-sunlights-mike-baumli\/","title":{"rendered":"Sunday Profile: Snowmaking with Sunlight\u2019s Mike Baumli"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
Tis\u2019 the season for Mike Baumli as he is busy making snow for the up coming season at Sunlight Mountain Resort. (Kyle Mills \/ Post Independent)<\/strong>
<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

It all started back in 1984 when Mike Baumli took a \u201chiatus\u201d from college and went to work over the winter making snow for Keystone Resort.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d been trying to figure out what I was going to do for a living so I could make enough money to live in the mountains, because that\u2019s where I always wanted to live,\u201d Baumli said. <\/p>\n

Now, 35 years later he\u2019s still living the Rocky Mountain dream, working as mountain manager and lead snowmaker at Sunlight Mountain Resort outside of Glenwood Springs.<\/p>\n

Baumli grew up in the Denver suburb of Lakewood, but his roots run deep in the Roaring Fork and Crystal River valleys. <\/p>\n

His father is from Carbondale, his grandfather grew up in Basalt, and his grandmother was born in the old mining town of Crystal, above Marble. <\/p>\n

\u201cBecause I had these ties to the valley, this is really where I wanted to be,\u201d Baumli said.<\/p>\n

That first job at Keystone turned into a dozen years of on-the-job training to be a ski resort snowmaker. During that time, Baumli also had the opportunity to make snow for ski resorts in Japan for two seasons.<\/p>\n

Through the years, he has also had snowmaking stints at Eldora ski area near Nederland, west of Boulder, and for four years he was snowmaking manager at Aspen Mountain. <\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t regret it at all,\u201d Baumli says of his decision to dedicate his life to the mountain resort lifestyle, and a successful career to boot. \u201cIt\u2019s definitely led to a lot of great opportunities.\u201d<\/p>\n

Baumli eventually landed in Glenwood Springs in 2004 after another hiatus running his own property management and cleaning business in the Roaring Fork Valley. That same winter, he joined Sunlight\u2019s Ski Patrol team, and has since worked his way up the ranks to his current position.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
With the help of a 4-wheeler Mike Baumli checks each snowmaking gun in the early monring hours at Sunlight Mountain. (Kyle Mills \/ Post Independent)<\/strong>
SunProfileMikeBaumli-gpi-111719-3<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

SKI BUM AT HEART<\/strong><\/p>\n

Those few years in the property management business reminded Baumli, now age 57, how much he enjoyed being on the mountain making snow and skiing.<\/p>\n

A soccer player in high school, Baumli found his love for skiing during those couple of years in college.<\/p>\n

He was hooked.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve met a lot of great friends in the business, and it\u2019s been a great experience,\u201d Baumli said. \u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s that camaraderie I like the most. The best thing is when we can write comment cards about staff members who\u2019ve done something exceptional,\u201d he added. \u201cGiving those \u2019at-a-boys, that\u2019s the best part of the job.\u201d<\/p>\n

Baumli\u2019s wife, Darla Baumli, is a longtime employee of the Garfield County Library District; currently working as the district\u2019s circulation coordinator. They have two children, a son who\u2019s 29, and a 17-year-old daughter at Glenwood Springs High School.<\/p>\n

When the family isn\u2019t skiing at Sunlight or doing other things in and around Glenwood Springs, they can usually be found up in the mountain hamlet of Marble, where Baumli\u2019s family owns property.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s on the church board at the Marble Community Church and involves himself in the many outdoor recreation activities the upper Crystal Valley has to offer. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe like to hang out in Marble as much as we can, because it\u2019s so peaceful,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He also took the opportunity to thank his wife, Darla, for allowing him to live and work the ski biz lifestyle he enjoys. <\/p>\n

In addition to heading up snowmaking operations at Sunlight, as mountain manager he also oversees the Ski Patrol, grooming operations and trails management during the ski season. <\/p>\n

COLORADO\u2019S TOP SNOWMAKER<\/strong><\/p>\n

For his years of dedication and skills, Baumli was named the 2019 Snowmaker of the Year by Colorado Ski Country USA at the conclusion of the 2018-19 ski season. <\/p>\n

\u201cMike brings an extensive knowledge of all aspects of mountain operations,\u201d Sunlight General Manager Tom Hays said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis knowledge and skills as a snowmaker are invaluable to us, and he is always focused on the future and how we can make more and better snow and do it more economically.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ross Terry is assistant general manager at Sunlight and was Baumli\u2019s predecessor as lead snowmaker. The experience he brought to Sunlight raised the bar for the ski area\u2019s snowmaking efforts, Terry said. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt takes a quite a bit of effort to pull this off,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019ve always described snowmaking as hours upon hours of boredom, separated by moments of sheer terror.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n
\n
Baumli calculates and records numbers and he checks the pump house for the snowmaking system at Sunlight recently. (Kyle Mills \/ Post Independent)<\/strong>
SunProfileMikeBaumli-gpi-111719-4<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

INNER WORKINGS<\/strong><\/p>\n

Hays said Baumli has been instrumental in simplifying Sunlight\u2019s snowmaking system, along with helping design and construct new lines, hydrants and two new retention ponds.<\/p>\n

The extra storage capacity nearly tripled the amount of water available for Sunlight to make snow, to more than 3 million gallons. <\/p>\n

That investment helped Sunlight open three weeks earlier than planned last season and \u2014 if the weather would cooperate \u2014 an earlier-than-planned opening could be possible this season, too.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I first started, we used a lot more compressed air than we do now,\u201d Baumli said. \u201cWe can run seven snow guns now for the one gun we used to run on that same amount of air.\u201d<\/p>\n

The older guns also flowed about 50% more water than the more-efficient SV14 guns Sunlight now uses.<\/p>\n

New nozzle designs also make for more optimal snow particle size, \u201cand we\u2019re able to make snow at higher temperatures if we want to.\u201d<\/p>\n

Because of Sunlight\u2019s limited water rights, the resort usually waits until the temperature dips below 20 degrees Fahrenheit before turning on the snow guns, Baumli said. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe only have a finite amount of water, so we have to maximize that,\u201d he said. \u201cThere are just a bunch of things that you have to balance to make it all work. But it\u2019s a lot of fun.\u201d <\/p>\n

jstroud@postindependent.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

via:: Post Independent<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tis\u2019 the season for Mike Baumli as he is busy making snow for the up coming season at Sunlight Mountain Resort. (Kyle Mills \/ Post Independent) It all started back in 1984 when Mike Baumli took a \u201chiatus\u201d from college and went to work over the winter making snow for Keystone Resort. \u201cI\u2019d been trying […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[160],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1316769","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-09-06 13:06:41","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSKE Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1316769","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1316769"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1316769\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1316769"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1316769"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1316769"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}