2011-2012 Annual Snowmaking Discussion Thread

[Hawk]

1 to 4 is dissapointing. oh well. I will be up tommorrow to ski.

[HowieT2]

1 to 4 is dissapointing. oh well. I will be up tommorrow to ski.

Be thankful for what we got. looks like all the vt resorts are reporting 4-5". at least it looks a little like winter. maybe we get a little upslope tonight FTW.

[gostan]

1 to 4 is dissapointing. oh well. I will be up tommorrow to ski.

The updated mountain report now shows 3-4 inches. It will certainly look more winter like on the slopes this weekend.

[Hawk]

I can be thankful and be disapointed as well. The way things are going we had better get used to this kind of thing this year.

[gostan]

......any day outside on the ski slopes is a heck of a lot more interesting and rewarding than a day inside.................& I remain convinced that the slow early season we are dealing with means that March and April will bring us some monumental dumps.

[Hawk]

I'm not that patient. I will be flying to snow.

[gostan]

I'm not that patient. I will be flying to snow.

Where & when? Looks like a smart move if you are doing so for end of this month. I was going to head west around first of the year myself, but will show some patience until first week of February.

[Hawk]

Hopefully I am tagging onto a business trip with my wife out to Seatle before Christmas. Baker or Crystal are the places we have in mind. Also headed to Tahoe at the end of January for 10 days. Woo Hoo!!!!!!

[ducky]

Wow! Mixed conditions and still downloading Bravo but a great day of skiing and riding at Sugarbush.

[Hawk]

Looks like a nice sunny day Ducky. Hopefully more nice weather for me tomorrow. I also heard that there might be some upslope snow with the passage of a small front tomorrow night.

[ducky]

Start with sharp edges and all will be well. See you out there - me in black jacket/grey pants.

[MntMan4Bush]

I see that only 3 trails are listed as open. Were they not able to blow snow? Are guns going right now? Says summit temp is 18 degrees. Are guns going on Ripcord and Organgrinder to have it ready for the weekend? Where are these 50-70 guns I heard about

[HowieT2]

I see that only 3 trails are listed as open. Were they not able to blow snow? Are guns going right now? Says summit temp is 18 degrees. Are guns going on Ripcord and Organgrinder to have it ready for the weekend? Where are these 50-70 guns I heard about

My guess is OG and ripcord open tomorrow. doubt we get top to bottom this weekend.

[ReefBum]

They were blowing below Heavens Gate this afternoon. One of the lift guys said they hope to be top to bottom by Sunday. From what i saw they are going to need to blow a good amount to get OG and Ripcord open (OG had more snow)....the guns were not running there this afternoon. Nice conditions on Jester but Downspout was pretty skied off (firm/ice) by the time I hit it this afternoon.

[win]

Let me add to what I wrote a couple of days ago to clarify a few things. First, remember that LP and Me are two separate systems so when you compare Sugarbush to other areas you have to look at the two combined. Thus, the 70 guns I mentioned that we had run at one point this year was only at LP, we can run near that number at ME under the same conditions. Also I should clarify the GPM capacity. At LP we actually MAX out at a total of 4,000 GPM. The 2,000 I mentioned would be if the 20 new guns were running at full efficiency. We would be runinng 2,000 gpm through them and still have another 2,000 gpm left to run through other guns. ME's capacity is approximately 2,500 gpm and possibly a bit more now that we have improved some of the efficiencies there. Because they are separate systems we can't put all the air and water on one trail like other mountains can. Today, we have three trails open at LP but we are also making snow on all of Rim Rum almost all the way down to The Glen House and on all of Inverness. When we open ME next week you might see a significant trail count expansion.

We did have to shut the guns down at LP today for several hours to do some valve repair. We did start up again and are using all of our air capacity on Lower Downspout and Gondolier due to the marginal temperatures lower on the mountain. We want to get top to bottom asap. This might be possible by the end of tomorrow. We'll see how the overnight temperatures do. They are higher than we had forecasted 24 hours ago. Getting top to bottom is more important now than getting OG or Ripcord as it looks like it will be warming up again Sunday into next week and we may only be able to make snow up high for several days. The forecast keeps changing so our snow plan is evolving daily.