Here in the Midwest I’ve had good luck with both Alpine and Snaketray, but our design snow loads are only 25-30 psf. We generally only use small sections of it over doors and to prevent damage to things like heat pumps below a large array that is close to the roof edge. I prefer Alpine, but if you have a small gap between panels the clamps shade the lower cells a bit on some panels. I have not seen a better option out there.
Just an anecdote, but a customer who I helped (I didn’t do the original install) had his car in the driveway and shedding snow from his array totaled it. Luckily it was fully insured. Made me think more seriously about recommending snow guard even if it’s not perfect. Oh and maybe adding a disclaimer to the contract.
Best, Garrison Riegel Celestar Solar
On Oct 1, 2025, at 11:47 AM, Sam Haraldson via RE-wrenches <[email protected]> wrote:
Chris,
Where we install in our valley the average yearly snowfall is around 80 inches and buildings are rated to assume a 50 lb per sq. ft. snow load. As the elevation climbs out of the valley and into the mountains we're looking at 400 inches of annual snowfall and load ratings increase to around 200 lb. per sq. ft. We have installed hundreds of systems with Alpine Snowguards and earlier on we installed a few dozen Snake Tray guards.
The Alpine snowguard product works well for our installs at lower elevations as it is limited in how much weight it can handle. When you read their spec sheets closely they indicate that no more than 6" of snow should be allowed to accumulate on the array. We had a banner snow year last winter and quite a bit of snow guard came out broken in the Springtime which has given us pause as to whether we should be installing it at all.
Your question was whether there are better options and we have not found anything better than Alpine. It is also honestly inadequate for where we live and have not been able to come up with an alternate solution. When my home array avalanches it is an impressive event and if there was a walkway or doorway underneath it I would absolutely want something mitigating that which is the case for many of our clients so it's certainly a conundrum.
Cheers, Sam
![OnSite Energy]() | Sam Haraldson Operations Specialist 1515 N. Rouse Ave Bozeman, MT 59715 Locally owned and operated since 2012 | ![B Corporation]() |
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