Late August. Temps still in the 70s. Your ski patrol team is hiking the ridgeline on bikes, not skis. And right now, somewhere in Colorado, a lift operator just put “50 days to snowmaking” on a whiteboard in the maintenance building — and nobody in marketing knows that’s a story.
This is the window most resort marketing teams completely blow.
The Countdown Nobody’s Running (But Should Be)
Unofficial Networks flagged it on Friday: a Colorado ski resort is approximately 50 days out from firing its snowmaking guns for the 2026-27 season. That’s not an operations note. That’s a campaign hook.
The ski resorts that consistently build early-season excitement aren’t the ones with the most powder days. They’re the ones who figured out that the pre-snowmaking window — those 60 days when crews are running equipment tests, checking nozzles, monitoring reservoir levels — is a goldmine of authentic behind-the-scenes content that guests are starving for in August.
Most marketing teams wait until first snowfall to start talking. That’s October at the earliest. By then your guests have already been marketed to by every competitor on their pass.
What the Countdown Actually Gives You
Think of it like a launch sequence. You have three distinct content moments built into the snowmaking calendar, and most teams only activate on the last one.
Pre-fire (now — 60 days out): Crews are servicing equipment. Snow guns are coming out of storage. Reservoir fill is being tracked. This is authentically interesting to your core audience. A 30-second reel of a snowmaking tech pulling a gun out of the maintenance shed, captioned “60 days. We’re already working.” — that post will outperform your generic fall foliage content every single time.
First guns (opening week of snowmaking): This is your loudest moment. Everyone loves the “first guns of the season” content — it’s visual, it’s emotional, and it signals that winter is actually coming. Make sure you have a crew at the guns on Day 1 with cameras rolling. Don’t let this happen off-camera.
First rideable terrain (early season open): The payoff. By this point you’ve been building the narrative for 6+ weeks and your audience is already invested. Your opening week posts perform significantly better when you’ve been showing the journey.
The Email That Actually Drives Early Pass Renewals
Here’s what I’ve seen work in resort email programs: a late-August “What We’re Building” note to your pass holders — short, specific, personal. Not a promotion. Not a countdown to a sale deadline. Just: “We’re 50 days out from snowmaking. Here’s what the crew has been doing.”
Open rates on that kind of message are consistently higher than promo email because it’s not asking for anything. It’s treating your pass holders like insiders, not customers. The renewal ask that lands a week later performs better because trust is already in the account.
The One Thing That Ruins This
Overpromising. The minute you turn the countdown into hype — “IT’S GOING TO BE AN EPIC SEASON!” — you’ve burned the goodwill. Make the snowmaking content informational and visual, not promotional. Let the audience do the hyping in the comments.
The resorts winning the pre-season right now aren’t the ones with the biggest budgets. They’re the ones who were already in their guests’ feeds talking shop in August when everyone else was quiet. It’s all downhill from there — in the best possible way.
What does your resort’s content calendar look like between now and first snowmaking? Are you treating this window as dead air — or as a runway?
