Buried in the slopes is enough wire to tie the northern and southern tips of Utah together, enough pipe to connect Salt Lake City with Ogden, with several miles to spare, more than 500 snow guns, some as tall as a home, and a book of simple instructions.

Which means that under starry, cloudless skies, operators can dial up the desired snow, and out will come snow as light and soft as any Mother Nature could make.

To install, it took more than 300 miles of wiring, 60 miles of electrical conduit, 40 miles of pipe and a snow gun every couple hundred feet — from the top of the mountain to the bottom.

One thing that makes this system so special is that each pool of five snow guns is connected to a weather monitoring station that keeps a computer constantly updated on what mixtures of air and water are needed to make the best snow.

What this means is snow can be produced with the same precise consistency at the top of the mountain as at the bottom, despite the differences in temperature and humidity.

Each snow gun covers an area 120 feet by 120 feet. And, under ideal conditions, which is a 10-degree wet bulb temperature, the resort can run up to 60 snow guns at a time and make up to four inches of powder snow from each gun in a 10-hour period.

All of Utah's 13 resorts have snowmaking capabilities. Some can cover more areas than others, but all have the ability to supplement natural snowfall to make for better skiing.