There’s skiable snow in Andover, New Hampshire.
It’s not new snow. In fact, this snow survived the summer under an insulated cover at Proctor Academy.
Proctor’s ski teams took the first runs of the 2026-2027 season on the Proctor Ski Area’s stored snowpack from the past season early last week.
The private school packed in a quarter-million cubic feet of snow at the base of its ski area. The mound sits at over 25 feet tall, with a covering roughly the size of a football field.
The preserved snow was topped with insulated Snow Secure material, technology from a Finnish company. This marked the first effort of its kind in New Hampshire.
As unpredictable winters have larger impacts on the ski industry, other snow farms are sprouting up around the world.
To kick off the season this November, the team at Proctor removed the cover and spread the snow up the hill.
Proctor’s Alpine Director Jason Nelson was thrilled with the result of year one.
“Proctor is always striving to have one of the best snow surfaces in the East, and this experiment with our Snow Secure system has enhanced our ability to get our students on snow,” he said. “Not only that, but the four-foot base we have established on this part of the hill will accelerate our ability to blow snow as temperatures drop in the coming weeks.”
He sees the process improving in the years to come.
The academy reported that around 60% of the pile survived and that ski area crew and coaches found it in good condition as “clean, malleable snow that would serve as the perfect base for this season’s operations,” according to the school’s website.
The skiers got right to it. Excited to be back on snow, they set up some rails to slide on, making it the first terrain park open this season.
Proctor Academy staff and students celebrated their first “harvest” from their snow farm. Credit: Proctor Academy 
A Proctor student hits a rail slide on snow conserved from the 2025-2026 winter. Credit: Proctor Academy 
Students were evidently enthused by being the first ones to hit a rail slide in the 2026 season. Credit: Proctor Aacademy