Gore Mtn Snowmaking (11-12)

Just posted this update from Mike on the Gore Snowmaking Upgrades blog post:

"New posts for the HKD guns are installed, and the new guns should arrive right after Columbus Day, and go in fairly quickly. Ratnik guns for Showcase are still a distinct possibility for this year, but not a done deal."

Running the lines for Arena Fan Guns - photo courtesy Gore Mountain

Note from Gore this am:

"Guns have been moved to North Side. Pete Gay is finished, now we're standing up Bear's towers.

New HKD tower lean out brackets should arrive Tuesday w/ the guns shortly behind that.

Tannery remodel coming along."

Tower guns on Sleeping Bear • photo courtesy Gore Mountain

130 HKD tower guns arrived yesterday, and installation is ongoing. HKD's should be fully installed by end of next week.

I wonder if this means they will be running the North Chair midweek?

fujative wrote

I wonder if this means they will be running the North Chair midweek?

Not if they continue to have 100 people on the mountain mid week.

x10003q wrote

fujative wrote

I wonder if this means they will be running the North Chair midweek?

Not if they continue to have 100 people on the mountain mid week.

Hold on. Except for last season when I didn't go to Gore even once, I've done TONS of midweek skiing at Gore. TONS. There's way more than 100 cars there, let alone just 100 skiers.

IMO, ORDA simply closes Gore's pods to send mo' dough to Placid. Cuts Gore snowmaking crews below the minimum to...

Snowballs wrote

IMO, ORDA simply closes Gore's pods to send mo' dough to Placid. Cuts Gore snowmaking crews below the minimum to...

Let's not start this again. It ruined the other thread already. At least contain it to there.

Snowballs wrote

IMO, ORDA simply closes Gore's pods to send mo' dough to Placid. Cuts Gore snowmaking crews below the minimum to...

agree - lets not start this again Snowwwwwwwwwballs.  Next thing we know we will be debating paid parking lots for the god know how many times.

Gore and WF both are fun places to ski - lets get along here.

I totally agree...if you don't like where you ski, ski somewhere else... I will ski at Gore and Whiteface for the majority of my days this year, and  I will have quite a few midweek days at Gore

Haha. That's very funny guys. There's others consistantly complaining on here about Gore's midweek terrain closures and you didn't say anything or tell them to go elsewhere. What's up with that? In fact, as long as the many others blame it on lack of beds, lack of customers and any other imagineary ill, you still don't say anything to them.

That's very hypocritical of you ,Suds, et al.

But as soon as I say " HELLO!, they don't fill the beds/condos/townhomes they already have, there is midweek customers....It's ORDA"s decision to close terrian " ....you get your panties in a bunch.

Everything I wrote in the above post is true and I don't see your rebuttal of any points I raised. Instead, I see you're going girlie ( ski elsewhere ) cause you can't refute and you just can't stand anything being said against Gore/ORDA management. How friggin wimpy.

Listen, if people are gonna complain about midweek terrrain closure (or any other issue) and don't have the backbone to even question the decision makers, then they should quit complaining about it like a bunch of Suzies.

For the record. I never complained about midweek terrain closures, EVER. It doesn't bother me one bit. I only joined in an ongoing debate about the issue and I added far more plausible rational than a " they don't have enough beds " - ( Yea, they can't fill the ones they already have).

LOTS of people complain about issues at Gore on here and people say absolutely NADA! ZIP! ZILCH! Yet, if I lay it at Gore/ORDA's feet where it belongs, then some of you guys get all boo-hooey offended.

What a bunch of suck ups.




This was not directed at you AS, or you X. X has always shown a willingness to question Gore/ORDA management.

I agree with you snowballs on the midwest closures - we all should push management to open more the entire mountain.  its a chicken or the egg thing if you don't open much then folks who ski midweek will elsewhere.  WF doesn't run all its lifts midweek but because of how the mt and lifts are we can still ski the whole place.  Gore's topography makes that not possible so more lifts need to run.

My point with you is lets not point figures back and forth between which mt orda likes better.  Its an old arguement that neither one of us can win.

snowballs i don't think anyone is saying don't give your opinion. maybe start your own post on it and give your whole idea.

Kum ba ya, my Lord, Kum ba ya......

Aussie, you've been using alot of dubya-s. So let me resupply you.

WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW.

Thanks Zip!

Everybody, all together now.......

Kum ba ya, my Lord, Kum ba ya...........

New HKD Tower Guns on Otter Slide • photo courtesy Gore Mountain

"Tower install is coming along. Should have the 130 HKDs in by mid-late next week."

(Got my fingers crossed for the Ratniks for Showcase. - H)

all those fancy guns are nice, but can their pumping and staff handle all the nice toys...

That's the object of these new guns, much less air needed; and there's always been plenty of water. With the increased efficiency that these guns, and the older tower guns that were moved to the north side, more snow can be made with much less air. And, with the addition of the power outlets added to the teaching hill/stokes area, that huge area that we all look at when we first arrive at Gore will be white without any use of the compressors at all

Tomorrow marks one month, I'm gettin' pumped!

That picture = More base depth for OSG

Darkside Shaman wrote

That's the object of these new guns, much less air needed; and there's always been plenty of water. With the increased efficiency that these guns, and the older tower guns that were moved to the north side, more snow can be made with much less air. And, with the addition of the power outlets added to the teaching hill/stokes area, that huge area that we all look at when we first arrive at Gore will be white without any use of the compressors at all

Tomorrow marks one month, I'm gettin' pumped!

Shaman,

Do you think that this means that the upper mountain will actually get more dedicated snow making earlier in the season as promised?  To be honest, I was hoping that these efficient guns would be put on the Bear Mountain or Summit areas.  I'm not really looking forward to skiing Otter Slides, good snow or no.  

CMR wrote

Do you think that this means that the upper mountain will actually get more dedicated snow making earlier in the season as promised?  To be honest, I was hoping that these efficient guns would be put on the Bear Mountain or Summit areas.  I'm not really looking forward to skiing Otter Slides, good snow or no.

I'd bet many here probably agree.  But Gore really has no choice but to use the new guns down low.

Gore is always going to start on the front side, move to Bear and then the summit. This is not only at the beginning of the season but after any kind of rain event.  It's about families and being able to access the gondola and ruby run to sunway.  That's a mountains bread and butter.  

If those guns were put on the summit, it could conceivably delay the time when snowmaking starts up top. The top isn't happening until the bottom has a lot of terrain open. This placement of the new guns will do one of two things: either decrease the time it takes to get to the summit or increase the amount of terrain that is open down low when they do move to the summit.  That's an interesting question of approach that I will pose. (I think I can guess the answer.)

The new guns should have advantages for summit skiers. These guns are state-of-the-art efficient. As much as 10-20x more efficient than those lovable ratnik ground guns.  You can look at all kinds of physical limits on snowmaking. But IMO the ultimate limit is money. The primary cost of snowmaking is compressing air.  The bill for electricity to compress air at Gore is 25% of the total budget = $1.5M per year.  These new guns will save a ton of money. Gore Mtn will get more manmade snow per dollar.

Another factor: Gore owns owns only a small fraction of the number of guns they need to cover the terrain.  The result is a lot of time and effort spent moving guns around.  If all of your ratniks are up top and it rains, then the crew has to haul all those guns down and start blowing on the front. Now you can leave them up top and go.

There is actually more. It's more expensive to make water at lower elevations.  The money that Gore got from National Grid for this project ($250,000) was based on a certain amount energy savings. That was "free" money. Putting guns at the bottom dramatically increases the potential savings from this installation.  This placement is really the only option with rising energy costs and reduced state contributions to ORDA.  

If you haven't seen it, take a look at the story we published the day this story was made public:

Gore Mountain Snowmaking Upgrades


Ratnik ground gun • "lots of snow fast and expensive"