Mt Abram is dedicated to sustainable practices. These are some of the initiatives that we are implementing to assist the environment that provides us with so much fun…

Our Low Energy Snowmaking Project, implemented prior to the 2010 ski season through our Low Energy Snow Guns, reduced annual ski area kW usage from 450,000 to 271,000, while simultaneously reducing 43,000 gallons of burned air-compressor diesel.

Abram’s snowmaking goal is to provide reliable snow cover, just over one foot on 70 acres (of the Resort’s 110 acres of trailed terrain, 70 are covered with snowmaking), for Opening Day and the Christmas Vacation period, additional volumes, two extra feet on five acres, for supporting the Resort’s terrain and race parks, and intermittent relief and recovery from rain and ice events throughout the season.

Abram’s New Low E system
Throughout the summer and fall of 2010 Abram replaced all its internal mixing air and water ground guns with 60 HKD Low E Towers allowing the Area to meet its snowmaking goals in roughly one third of the time required in years past, while significantly increasing snow cover reliability and responsiveness.

Low E Towers rely on water pressure and nozzle technology to break up droplets to a freezable size. A fixed volume of compressed air is then used to nucleate the droplet to initiate ice crystallization. In addition, Low E Towers spray nucleated plumes from 20 to 30 ft above the trail allowing more crystallization prior to landing. This innovative technology resulted in a system requiring only 20% – 25% of the compressed air that ground guns do to convert a given unit of water into snow.

Abram’s New Wood Pellet Boiler
In the late fall of 2011 Mt. Abram installed a wood pellet boiler to heat the temporary base lodge structure and future permanent lodge and surrounding buildings. The new system replaces the old oil boiler (that was destroyed in the fire), lifting our resort’s reliance on  fossil fuels for heating buildings. Similar systems are in place in Western Europe and can fully heat a building holding 30-40 apartments.  The pellet boiler is completely carbon neutral as it burns premium pellets that are very dry and highly pressurized pieces of wood. To learn more visit www.maineenergysystems.com . The entire process creates a very fine ash that can be used in a compost pile or directly on a garden to facilitate healthy growth.

In addition to the boiler we are using 2 wood pellet burning stoves to heat buildings: one in the tickets & rental shop and one in the top patrol shack.

Used Fryer Oil
We are currently putting our used fryer oil from the kitchen that services both the cafeteria line and the Loose Boots Lounge into a hundred gallon tank for Maine Standard Biofuels. Once a month they pick it up and take it to the processing facility in Portland where it is converted to be used as a “green” renewable fuel.

Mt Abram Car Pool
What better way to reduce your ‘footprint’ than carpooling. And what better reason to carpool than to save money! Mt Abram’s Carload Friday gets everyone in your car on the hill for JUST $75. Everyone must be legally belted, of course. Vans and buses not included.