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View Full Version : trail prep and concentration was great



jwt
01-07-2007, 08:42 PM
North shined. Ext/FIS had MID-SEASON cover,( OK, late March after a little thaw) after an inch or more of rain and fog and 60 degree temps. . . . . . . . . . . . Cruiser was good as well, and the others certainly exceeded expectations . . . if you only waited out the rain Sat morning. . . . . . . . . some of the hardest pounding all season. . . who woul have guessed?

Like always, those who venture out get the real deal. I can only imagine what those who only looked from the base and didn't ski thought?????
Hats off to the mtn ops after near impossible conditions. . . . . .
and it will not get worse from here. . only better.
The guns were roaring as i drove out of the Valley tonight.

Lostone
01-07-2007, 08:52 PM
Good to hear, as I was telling people to go over there.

Rebuilding again. :cry:

Let's hope for some help, here.

ahm
01-08-2007, 06:36 AM
Interesting weekend. Sat skied well on Exterm and FIS (once the vis cleared). Notched 27,000 verts so I think I "covered" the hill. Closed the summit chair with a 5 pack of FIS. Had 10 exterminators. Sun was a different story. Where some fresh blown had been laid down, it skied well (ie rim run). Interesting, since just a bit got blown on the on run, then the guns were moved to near the summit base. Elbow skied ok, nothing great, probably could have used a bit of that "dust and run" approach. Looking good, again could have used a couple "band aids". Now, how about cruiser. Not sure what was up there, except, that it needs serious work as does all lower mountain. After the grooming effort, I might have gone with downloading from a providing quality skiing standpoint, something we hear from the management all the time: we do not want to just blow a bit of snow, we want a quality product. Well cruiser was not a quality product and in reality it should have been worked or closed. The bottom needs effort and work. Stop blowing on FIS and the upper Jester. Get it good top to bottom and show that you can use that snowmaking system.

Yep, here ya on the weather and if Windham can put more snow at the bottom with a lower elevation so can SB. I think SV needs to seriously look at the snowmaking and what their committment to it is. On Sun all guns should have been running and they were simply not. Pico was blowing much more snow when I drove by and had 4 separate trails open to the bottom. SB has one run to the bottom at North and not a whole lot more at LP. Pico is at the same elevation as SB base so that should not be an issue.

When you have limited terrain and then throw all kinds of programs on the hill, you have a recipe for disaster. The area needs to ask itself if it can actually support snowmaking. When Cliffs is not open, but hammerhead is, the decision making rationale needs to be questioned. If there is enough snow for hammerhead, then there should be enough snow for Tumbler, cliffs, and encore. Let's be honest Win and Hardy. An employee friend skied Hammy on Friday and said no way it should be open. With some snow last week management dropped a bunch of ropes. Ok fine, good call. But once the terrain dies, you should close it and not elevate the trail count by showing it open in the morning but closing later in the morning. That's false advertising or junk bond sales, but the net is the same.

Let's hope this week the area runs the guns, not just a couple so it looks "nice" but really put some snow down. It's basically a challenge to the management: you have a week of tolerable weather, let's see what you can do........................

Mike451
01-08-2007, 07:52 PM
Personaly, I am wondering if the lack of Sneaux making on the lower mountain has to do with Labor issues, as I heard from A SNOWMAKER back in december, that the Night Crew was taking all the guns off the lower mountain, and that they could only handle one or 2 trails up top if that. In addition the Night Crew at that time supposedly only consisted of 2 people. Now, Honestly, Are they running below capicity at M/E because of a lack of labor, and not even using all of the limited capicity there is. I would really like Win to clear this up, as it is prety confusing to me.

BushMogulMaster
01-08-2007, 08:39 PM
I respectfully disagree with you, ahm. I think the SB management has done a great job so far (although I would have like to see another route along with Cruiser a little sooner). Much of the reason that there hasn't been lower-mt snowmaking is temp related. Why blow mist and waist $1000s on air when you have a forecast that is showing colder nights very soon? Wait for them, and then hit it hard. Yeah... I skiied Cruiser too. It wasn't a quality product. But it was better than lower mountain just about anywhere else in Northern Vt. on Sunday. And like I said, they couldn't blow when the temps were hitting 40 right there. It just doesn't work. Period. And elevation is not everything. Weather patterns and fluctuations are affected by much more than just elevation. Maybe Pico was 5 or 10 degrees cooler. That would mean reasonable snowmaking. The guns on lower mountain at SB just couldn't run on Sunday. Not because they didn't want to run them, but because they couldn't (I think I'm repeating myself... sorry!).

Why should Cliffs have to be open for Hammerhead to be open? Hammerhead is skinnier and much more protected from sun and wind. It holds snow better. There were very clear signs that stated "Experts only, thin cover." I was just happy to be skiing on that part of the mountain. I do think that Hammerhead and Encore should have closed a little earlier, but oh well. However, I skied Hammerhead Friday too, and it was skiable. VERY thin, but skiable. I probably wouldn't have kept it opened, but it wasn't life-threateningly (is that a word?) dangerous.

I'm interested to see what happens this week as well. Maybe they will disappoint me and I will rest my case. However, I have the utmost respect for and trust in Win, Hardy, Dan (ME GM), Mike (Snow Surfaces Mgr), etc. to make this happen. They really do know what they're doing. I don't think it's fair to place too much blame on management; not that they're perfect, but they're definitely doing their best in quite possibly the worst early winter they've ever experienced in the industry :cry: .

I hope I don't come across as being a prick ( :wink: :lol: ), but I had to make my point that management at SB is top quality, and they're doing everything they possibly can to make the best skiing experience possible.

I, too, would like to hear from Win to see what the facts are about the snowmaking decisions. But I will say again that I trust whatever decisions that he and the rest of mgt make. :D However, we might not hear from Win right away. Today through Wednesday is the NSAA Western Regional Conference at Vail, and I would assume he is attending???

Tin Woodsman
01-08-2007, 09:32 PM
Personaly, I am wondering if the lack of Sneaux making on the lower mountain has to do with Labor issues, as I heard from A SNOWMAKER back in december, that the Night Crew was taking all the guns off the lower mountain, and that they could only handle one or 2 trails up top if that. In addition the Night Crew at that time supposedly only consisted of 2 people. Now, Honestly, Are they running below capicity at M/E because of a lack of labor, and not even using all of the limited capicity there is. I would really like Win to clear this up, as it is prety confusing to me.

Mike -

I've heard this in a few places as well, both from guys on the mountain and backchannel in this forum from locals. I think that dog will hunt, and it makes logical sense given the massive expenditure on Clay Brook and the new lodge. Not that I'm up in arms about it - you can't have "guns and butter" so to speak. Until they sell that bldg out, expect this to remain the case. In a normal winter, with 4-5 day snowmaking windows, this wouldn't be an issue. This winter, with 12-24 hour snowmaking windows, the limited labor available on crews (if this is in fact the case) would effectively be their worst case scenario. It would take longer to set up and shut down the guns for each given window, preventing them from really utilizing the cold weather that does come to its full extent.

sugarboarder
01-08-2007, 09:51 PM
I wish it would just f-ing SNOW like it used to...we'd all be spending half the time here that we are right now and most of the stuff we are talking about would be a moot point. The times they are a-changing.

BushMogulMaster
01-08-2007, 10:03 PM
I wish it would just f-ing SNOW like it used to...we'd all be spending half the time here that we are right now and most of the stuff we are talking about would be a moot point. The times they are a-changing.

Agreed! I look at my post count of, now, 164. That's only over less than two months. I average 3+ posts per day. If only I could find some powder, my post count would be about 10! Of course, this crappy weather was an excuse to build sugarbushhistory.com in 3 days! But I'd still rather be out in a couple feet of fluffy powder. Grrrr.... I need snow!

sugarboarder
01-08-2007, 11:17 PM
I wish it would just f-ing SNOW like it used to...we'd all be spending half the time here that we are right now and most of the stuff we are talking about would be a moot point. The times they are a-changing.

Agreed! I look at my post count of, now, 164. That's only over less than two months. I average 3+ posts per day. If only I could find some powder, my post count would be about 10! Of course, this crappy weather was an excuse to build sugarbushhistory.com in 3 days! But I'd still rather be out in a couple feet of fluffy powder. Grrrr.... I need snow!

Ahhh...a fellow web designer. eh? Check out www.cloudtenweb.com - that's my site.

I'll be up on Elbow tomorrow afternoon on my GS board - flag me down if you are up there...I'm hard to miss - only alpine board on the hill most dayz! 8)