The Snowmaking/Operations Outlook Thread

That's the cut off to Gore's lower Darby.

Brownski wrote

Don't know. The point is all those teeny weeny little tripod guns along the right hand side. They created those whales in like twelve hours and a crew of a couple guys will soon pick them up, move them to another trail of back to the garage and, except for a few unobtrusive hydrants in the tree line, it'll be like an actual natural mountain.... No permanent towers sticking up in the air or bright blue turbines ruining the view. Isn't that a thing of beauty in and of itself?

Whiteface seemed to have done a great job recovering from the r*in on Thursday.  Base depths were very good in most places, except for a few spots that I noticed.

Lower Northway after the cut to Summit Express
Lower Mac
Boreen Headwall
Upper Wilderness

The temps this week aren't great, but should be good enough for nighttime snowmaking to keep trails fresh and fix the problems with thin cover in the noted locations.

Once we get back into a sustained cold pattern, they won't need to resurface anything anymore, which would mean the remaining snowmaking trails could be done quickly.

Boreen headwall....that always kills me.  It's not like they have to check it for avy danger.

D.B. Cooper wrote

Boreen headwall....that always kills me.  It's not like they have to check it for avy danger.

It cracks me up when people say that. There are no head walls on green trails.

Brownski wrote

Don't know. The point is all those teeny weeny little tripod guns along the right hand side. They created those whales in like twelve hours and a crew of a couple guys will soon pick them up, move them to another trail of back to the garage and, except for a few unobtrusive hydrants in the tree line, it'll be like an actual natural mountain.... No permanent towers sticking up in the air or bright blue turbines ruining the view. Isn't that a thing of beauty in and of itself?

I couldn't agree more. The permanent towers really detract from the sort of skiing experience I'm looking for. It reminds me of skiing at Vernon Valley or Camelback where there is ugly shit everywhere from snow gun towers to alpine slides, giant light towers to water slides and what ever else. It's like being on the board walk at Seaside New Jersey.

Headwall seems to be an accurate term to me given the havoc it creates - its got to be the steepest green trail in the country.  Not many sections of green trails are essentially what was a jump during an Olympic downhill.

The Boreen cutoff really needs to be blown so there is a route around that.

The other problem with that is that the darn work cat is going up and down that thing all day long chewing up the trail and pulling rocks up into the snow.  While I was waiting for my customers when I was teaching this weekend I picked up and tossed at least 10 baseball or bigger sized rocks off that trail section.  There is no other ski area that I have ever seen that uses work cats during operation hours without a groomer on the back.  Snowmobiles are used instead every where else which don't mess up the snow nearly as much.

Boreen headwall is really just a locals term for that spot.  Probably should be rated blue and they should open the Boreen Loop to go around it.

Well, we certainly aren't talking about the highest cliff in a glacial cirque!  That said, the term is more broadly used to describe similar non-glacial features where you have a concave depression with convergent slopes forming the upper end of a valley.  The Boreen "Headwall" sort of is that, with slopes coming off the ridge heading down valley on Boreen.  Typically the term is used for slopes of 65 percent  (33 degrees) or greater.  Before the regrade it wouldn't have suprised me if the "Headwall" hit that for a short bit.  

No doubt that is a pretty darn steep section for a green circle, and the misnomer just recognizes that.  To this day my wife hates Boreen because of the miserable experience she had on the "Headwall" many moons ago before the regrade.

snoloco wrote

Boreen headwall is really just a locals term for that spot.  Probably should be rated blue and they should open the Boreen Loop to go around it.

Boreen shoot is really just a locals term for that spot

The blue jackets all call it Boreen headwall while I guess the Orange call it shoot though frankly in 17 years of working there not once have I heard it called "shoot" until today.  A whole different set of terminology separated by one floor of the MOB.

Coach Z wrote

Headwall seems to be an accurate term to me given the havoc it creates

Good thing they put enough snow down to cover Mixing Bowl crevasse.  

Highpeaksdrifter wrote

Boreen shoot is really just a locals term for that spot

Ah, chute. Who knew ?

Snowballs wrote

Highpeaksdrifter wrote

Boreen shoot is really just a locals term for that spot

Ah, chute. Who knew ?

Damn...ya got me and ya got me good. You're the better man.

Highpeaksdrifter wrote

Snowballs wrote

Highpeaksdrifter wrote

Boreen shoot is really just a locals term for that spot

Ah, chute. Who knew ?

Damn...ya got me and ya got me good. You're the better man.

Ah, shoot. Thanks !  

Cold and maybe snow coming back in the near future, and it looks as if cold weather will be sustained once it does come back.  Time for the final wave of terrain expansions for the season.

Gore has three more trails on the main mountain that are typically blown every year that haven't been yet.  Rumor, Upper Sleighride, and Sagamore.  Yeah, Powder Pass-North Star, and some short trails near the Sunway lift have plumbing, but I have never seen it used.  Since they didn't build base depths when Whiteface did, they'll likely have more resurfacing to do also.  Once those trails are done, it should be onto the Ski Bowl, if it isn't already open on natural snow.

As I mentioned in the other thread, Lookout Mtn should be on the plan soon for Whiteface, and if the incoming storm stays all or mostly snow, they should be able to get up there sooner rather than later.  There's still a few trails elsewhere that haven't been blown, so we'll see if any of those get hit before Lookout.  I personally think Lookout should be done first, because that way they guarantee all lifts for President's Weekend, and they can hit whatever trails are left after they finish Lookout.

Is Christmas coming?

snoloco wrote

 I personally think Lookout should be done first, because that way they guarantee all lifts for President's Weekend, and they can hit whatever trails are left after they finish Lookout.

It's like the friggin Ground Hog Day movie with you, petit marmotte. Everyday, every hour.

I saw about a hundred of these at Catamount last weekend. I thought they looked like a cartoon version of a snowmaking fan gun.

 Sorry for the delay here, but Yes, these things are cool. I have no idea who makes them, but Plattekill has a bunch. They don't use them anymore, but a few years ago they did. Last year they sat in the "grave yard" right between lower Powder Puff and the parking lot, but now they are at the warehouse down the road.  

The ones at Plattekill were portable and had on-board compressors. Worked great IMO, but were some of the loudest fan guns I have ever heard. They have a belt drive reciprocating compressor on them.

those look like they are running on hill air.  I will never understand what the purpose of a fan gun that runs on hill air is. Defeats the purpose of a fan gun. I mean, who wants to have three lines running into a snowgun? Fan guns consume very little compressed air because the fan does most of the work. Running hill air to them as well as electric makes no sense to me.