Snowmaking plan?

[slatham]

Win (or someone else in the know) what is the plan? As of 3pm it was 19 degrees atop Mt Mansfield, which has to be a good proxy for the top on Lincoln/Ellen. Mountain forecast is for lows in low 20's, highs tomorrow mid 20's, and Tuesday upper 20's. Longer range forecast looking good too - at least for early November. By the looks of the CAMs, Killington has been blasting since at least mid day today. Time to crank 'em up and put some snow down.

[win]

Our plan was to start snowmaking at Lincoln Peak around November 1st which is tomorrow. It does look like we have at least a few good days of temperatures at the summit, so we will be assessing in the morning and hoping the temperatures will allow a good run so that we can make opening day on Saturday, November 20th.

[summitchallenger]

Any word as to if the guns are going? Pictures?

[shadyjay]

Just stepped out on my deck. I may be a little crazy, but I hear what sounds like the guns going - but it sounds like they're on the Gate House side, or right at the base area.

Snow Report's been updated with the guns scheduled to go on 11/2.... so maybe I'm just hearing a test.

Update: It was a test, or a purge of the lines. Good to hear the sounds of the season once again!

[summitchallenger]

Just stepped out on my deck. I may be a little crazy, but I hear what sounds like the guns going - but it sounds like they're on the Gate House side, or right at the base area.

Snow Report's been updated with the guns scheduled to go on 11/2.... so maybe I'm just hearing a test.

Update: It was a test, or a purge of the lines. Good to hear the sounds of the season once again!

You beat me to the punch...

The countdown begins… only 19 days until our projected opening, and both Mother Nature and our Sugarbush team are getting ready.

We’ve already seen our first snow on October 16th, with over two feet falling at our summit. While that was quick to melt, the transition towards winter is prevalent, and today we continue to see flurries accumulating across the mountain.

Snowmakers are preparing to turn snow guns on tomorrow night (Tuesday, November 2nd), weather permitting. And opening day at Lincoln Peak is slated for Saturday, November 20th.

[win]

Testing all the lines today. Looks like we have some warmer weather and rain coming in but by the weekend the forecast is looking for colder weather, so hopefully we can be cranking and shooting to get open by 11/20.

[summitchallenger]

Any word? It was originally November 1st, then it was the 2nd, and now it is the 5th. What's the plan?

[vonski]

Any word? It was originally November 1st, then it was the 2nd, and now it is the 5th. What's the plan?

Lets hope it is the fifth!

[Hawk]

Any word? It was originally November 1st, then it was the 2nd, and now it is the 5th. What's the plan?

Lets hope it is the fifth!

Realistically with the 2 inches of rain they got yesterday and today, how far do you think they got? I would think not very far. Also look at the extended forecast. 50's next week. They can't make miracles happen. We need cold.

[vonski]

Any word? It was originally November 1st, then it was the 2nd, and now it is the 5th. What's the plan?

Lets hope it is the fifth!

Realistically with the 2 inches of rain they got yesterday and today, how far do you think they got? I would think not very far. Also look at the extended forecast. 50's next week. They can't make miracles happen. We need cold.

If the system had been ready, they easily could have made some whales on Jester the beginning of last week. They have the same 3 day window coming up. So, they can make some big whale piles. Killington did not open and made big deep piles to survive the warm last week which allowed them to get open. With the limited capacity in the first place making big piles would be helpful. The rain event yesterday was cold rain and snow up top. Looking at the Mad river glen web cam, the natural near the bottom survived for most of the day.

So, had they started at midnight on the first, they could have had some nice piles up top waiting to be pushed around.
However, they were only blowing out the mice on the first. They were not ready to go on the first.

It may be due to the construction and the pipe work along with the HG pump house still needing some work.

[Hawk]

Any word? It was originally November 1st, then it was the 2nd, and now it is the 5th. What's the plan?

Lets hope it is the fifth!

Realistically with the 2 inches of rain they got yesterday and today, how far do you think they got? I would think not very far. Also look at the extended forecast. 50's next week. They can't make miracles happen. We need cold.

If the system had been ready, they easily could have made some whales on Jester the beginning of last week. They have the same 3 day window coming up. So, they can make some big whale piles. Killington did not open and made big deep piles to survive the warm last week which allowed them to get open. With the limited capacity in the first place making big piles would be helpful. The rain event yesterday was cold rain and snow up top. Looking at the Mad river glen web cam, the natural near the bottom survived for most of the day.

So, had they started at midnight on the first, they could have had some nice piles up top waiting to be pushed around.
However, they were only blowing out the mice on the first. They were not ready to go on the first.

It may be due to the construction and the pipe work along with the HG pump house still needing some work.

I just think that your expectations are to high with this snowmaking system. I know I am going to get blasted by someone on this but here's my take. Plain and simple, they do not have the air capacity to blow a ton of snow. I won't talk about water because I do not know what the new pipes have done on the capacity side. SV made a decision to go with these environmentally friendly guns that need less air. They also have made the decision to not upgrade or add compressors to increase the capacity. Now I do not know if they figured that with the new guns they didn't need as much. Well that is a long way up there and a large amout of pipe to fill. I do not think that the new guns produce as good as the old but one thing is for sure without more capacity you can only do so much. Take Sunday River for instance. They can produce 90,000 cubic feet of air in one minute to 110 psi. K is even larger. The result is they can blow 3 loops at once. That is 6 trails!!! I have been watching the Bush these last coupe of years and they can hardly get one trail done at a time. I would think that thier capacity is probably 1/10 that. Now it might be the the old infrastructure may be failing and they can not put more stress on the system. I just wish that they took snow making a little more seriously. That is all. Fire away.

[gostan]

Agree with it or not, with the weather forecast for this week it just did not make either fiscal sense or operational sense to spend the $$ to blow snow. The combination of heavy rain and varying temperatures was/is a show-stopper- like it or not. A little patience and I am sure that the snow guns will be blasting.

[vonski]

Agree with it or not, with the weather forecast for this week it just did not make either fiscal sense or operational sense to spend the $$ to blow snow. The combination of heavy rain and varying temperatures was/is a show-stopper- like it or not. A little patience and I am sure that the snow guns will be blasting.

It was fiscal for all that matters we understand that. But when your the only major resort besides Jay to not start making snow the beginning of this week there has to be other factors playing into the mix. Jay also has lower elevation terrain that they open first being Stateside giving them more of an excuse.

But to not have the guns ready to go up on HG the beginning of this week was not right. The piles would have held up and Jester could be almost done as they usually take about four days to get it done and they had three good days if they had gotten going on Halloween and gotten out of the box to start a day earlier. Also would have been making piles on top of some snow that was already up there.

So, go ahead and blast me as well! But just my 2 cents! I am not a critic of the mountain but a flatlander wanting to see a few more trails open at Turkey day!

[vonski]

the neighbor down the road is saying 6 to 8 up top. So, again, I don't see how the snow if it had been made earlier in the week up top would have been gotten melted by this 1-2 inch rain event that was below 2500 feet.

[HowieT2]

If I recall our previous discussions of this issue correctly, this is where the fan guns would be most beneficial because they are better than the lowE guns at marginal temperatures. Furthermore, since they have there own compressors, the lack of air capacity in the system as a whole would not be an issue. I wonder if they can just rent those suckers.