Cary resident Rick Nordman turned his lifelong passion for snow sports into a personal backyard ski resort and specialty snow-making business.
For Rick Nordman, it’s the most wonderful time of the year. As a native Northerner and decades-long recreational snowboarder, it isn’t just the prospect of snow that fills him with glee — it’s the certainty that he can make his own.
As you might expect from someone whose joy comes from creating a winter wonderland any time he wants, Nordman seeks out ways to share the magic with others. So, for close to 20 years now, this self-styled Southern Snowman has been blanketing the Triangle area with wonderment.
Despite witnessing heavy snowfalls in 2000 and 2002, Nordman lamented many snowless seasons in his more than 30 years as a Cary resident. It was 2006 when a cold front moved into the area just before his annual Christmas party. On a friend’s suggestion, Nordman took the icy plunge and purchased some residential snowmaking equipment to make his own snow for the first time. Party guests “loved it” and recommended that he start a business.
Though he is a software salesperson by trade, Southern Snowman was born.
When weather conditions are right, Nordman covers his sloping backyard in snow for friends and neighbors to enjoy — and, with his movie-quality artificial snowfall effect, can even bring snowflakes down on merrymakers.
Contributed photo
It may have been Robert Frost who said, “You can’t get too much winter in the winter,” but Nordman put the notion into practice by covering the yard of his affectionately named Mt. Roundtree home with snow every time the weather allowed.
Unsurprisingly, the Southern Snowman’s backyard ski slope caught people’s attention. With Mt. Roundtree backing onto Cary’s Maynard Road, passersby would notice the LED lights in the trees and see the snowy playground beneath them, stopping their cars to look or coming around the front to find Nordman and tell him what the sight meant to them.
“My kids make me drive by your house every day,” parents would tell him with a glimmer in their eyes as they recalled their own childhood snow days. Nordman, who has seen tears shed at the sight of his backyard ski resort, says that the feelings evoked are why he makes snow. “The idea was that in a world that’s getting more crazy,” he shares, “by covering my yard with snow, I could break that train of thought for even just a second.”
Though he wanted nothing more than to spread joy as he spread his snow to other residential yards — after all, his business motto is “Bringing snow to the South, one house at a time” — practical issues quickly arose. Even if he could predict when it would be cold enough to make snow, he also had to reckon with humidity. Nordman, who says he missed his calling as a meteorologist, was satisfied with making snow in his own yard whenever the temperature and humidity were just right. But when clients were paying for his snow on demand, he had to find a way to contend with the science. “There were times I could make snow at 34 degrees,” he says, “but not at 28.”
So, he expanded his original vision.
With Mt. Roundtree still serving as Southern Snowman’s best marketing tool, Nordman became a distributor of snowmaking equipment in the Carolinas, selling snowmaking systems to the NC Zoo, local meteorologists, and other clients. He was still constrained by Mother Nature, until he realized that he could not only spread snow on the ground — he could also make it fall from the sky. His vision now aligned with his desire to provide the merriment of snow on any day, Nordman’s movie-quality snowfall effect became his service showstopper.
With an extensive snow fan arsenal and a soap-based evaporative snow solution, he can bring snowy flakes down over tree lightings, festivals, parties, weddings, and other events. Although the mix doesn’t produce true snow, Nordman’s take on the experience of witnessing the snowfall effect is: “If it looks real, then it’s real.”
Working with organizations like Make-A-Wish became “life-changing” for Nordman, who relishes being able to help bring cheer to worthy causes. Whether for children with critical illnesses or those in crisis at Hope Reins, being able to give back by helping others smile is “a rewarding job to do.” Other partnerships include Dorcas Ministries in Cary, as Nordman showers their annual Snow4Food drive with snow while hundreds of pounds of canned food for the food bank is collected. (He invites donations at this year’s event on Saturday, November 30, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.)
As someone who’s always looking ahead to the next goal, and hopeful that snowmaking can become his full-time job instead of his projected “retirement job,” Nordman recognized this past summer that his snow equipment could also be used to provide off-season opportunities. Calling it “misting on steroids,” he can use the same water pump and snow guns to create a custom misting service for summertime events.
“Our summers aren’t getting any cooler,” he says, which is why his service includes his snowfall effect capabilities within the mist for a complete cooling experience. Southern Snowman’s creative misting services are a great fit for outdoor concerts, golf tournaments, parks, festivals, and even summer camps, and he is already booking misting jobs for next spring and summer.
Southern Snowman provides a professional turnkey snowmaking — and summer misting — service that leaves no mess or cleanup, which results in an almost 100% renewal rate and regular customers that include WRAL, Downtown Cary Park, Wake Forest, and many other towns and shopping centers across the Carolinas. Even Northern transplants who had become jaded by previous harsh and snow-heavy winters can’t complain about no-fuss seasonal sentimentality.
With jobs starting in early November and lined up every weekend this holiday season, it’s a good thing this Southern Snowman remains jolly about what he calls “playing Santa Claus.”
When it comes to the reactions he receives from kids and parents alike, Nordman admits, “It never gets old.” About helping people make memories, he says with just a sprinkle of nostalgia, “We’re not just making snow. We’re making a difference.”
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