His chance of snow is 100%

Mount Rountree: Southern Snowman
CARY, North Carolina – No matter what happens this morning, Rick Nordman will have 5 inches of snow in his backyard, easy.

His secret: He makes it in batches all night long.

Armed with a snow gun, a stump grinder and cigarettes, Nordman has built Cary’s first and only ski run. At the end of a Cedar Creek subdivision cul-de-sac, it’s 80 feet long. The jump is made of logs and boards. Nordman calls it “Roundtree Mountain,” after his street.

On Wednesday night, Nordman surveyed his slope with his buddy, Jimmy Earp. Nordman, 37, who keeps a soul patch of whiskers under his lip, was bundled in a red parka and black wool hat.

“I love snow,” he said. “I had been up snowboarding and they had snow guns running and I said, ‘Man, if I had one of those I could bury my yard in snow in a day.’ ”

It was mere whimsy until Earp found a $748 snow gun online. Nordman got Earp to pay for half, then borrowed a pressure washer and an air compressor. He had snow by mid-December.

Then, he transformed his back porch into a ski deck. He already had the hot tub, the outdoor heaters and the fountain.

Making snow is no cakewalk. Nordman and his buddies have had to stay up until the wee hours drinking beer and feeding the gas-powered pressure washer connected to the snow gun. He checks the humidity. After bedtime, he gets up every couple of hours to monitor the operation.

“He is ate up with it,” Earp said. “If I had done it on my own, there might be some snowmaking. But he’ll get up in the middle of the night. He’s very diligent.”

Nordman’s snow is visible from Southwest Maynard Road, a major street. Some people stare. Others take pictures.

“I call my wife in the mornings and say, ‘He’s making snow again!’ ” said Phillip Spangler of Pittsboro, who dropped by Wednesday.

A few have asked Nordman how much he would charge to cover their yards. This gave Nordman, who is in sales, an idea for a side business: freelance snowmaker.

“That was the latest epiphany,” he said, while discussing the business plan, which includes putting a big sign over the slope.

Enough about business. Nordman cranked on the snow machine, grabbed his snowboard and started hiking uphill.

“Now,” he said, “I need a ski lift.”

Source: N&O
Mount Rountree: Southern Snowman