This seems to be what Sugarbush is doing right now, critical terrain that will get alot of use, will only be opened when it has decent cover, yet they have no problem opening non critical trails when they become skiable, or even yet durring the spring, stuff gets left open that is not entierly skiable. Two instances of this, I skiied the runout at the end of march of last year, and had to walk over about a 10' bare spot. I skiied birch run, and had to navigate through a foot wide maze down the final pitch. And agiain, this season, the tuesday after thanks giving, Upper Rim Run was skiable with about a 5' wide swatch down the very left of the trail on the top pitch. The top of eblow, was a maze, of dirt and snow. But there were some sweet corn bumps to be had, and if you were on Rock Skis, it was worth it.
When ME reopened this season, they opened a day prior to the public opening for ASRA, and if there was enough snow for them, I think there was enough for any decent skier.
It seems like, they are really into opening with good enough conditions, that people woudn't complain about thin cover on the one trail there is to be skied, but personaly, I really don't mind, as that's what rock skis are for.
And again back to sneaxmaking......
Why can't they just add at least one aditional pump, and compressor at MT Ellen, even just have hookups for rentals, like at L/P to bring in more capaicity to open terrain faster early on. Yes, the pond capacity is limited, but if you are going to convert a certain ammount of gallons of water into snow, you might as well do it in a given period of which it is actualy efficient, which would save money, and would allow for a greater net ammount of snow to be made throught the season. Running the guns when the temps suck is just a waste of money and energy, So having more capicity, would allow more snow to be made, durring the cold windows which are short and sparce early on. Just really being able to crank, that one 5 degree night, and produce some serious volume, is the time to make snow, and if you have such a window, it would make sense to really have the system to use it for all its worth.
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