The Snowmaking/Operations Outlook Thread

Harvey wrote

snoloco wrote

Better than non-freezing r*in.

I get this. Skiing is extremely important.

However freezing rain can be a matter of life or death.  The amount of snowpack saved by freezing rain vs plain ol rain isn't worth dying for.

Then don't be a moron and drive in it.  There's no powder to ski anyways.

The types of precip in order from best to worst:  Snow>sleet>freezing r*in>>>>>>>>>r*in.

Play by your own rules and don't wish r*in on someone's mountain.

Hokey smokes. You two are growing to be rivals.

I'm not driving in it. We stayed put.  Sometimes you have to look beyond your own self and consider others.

People don't always KNOW when they are going to start sliding and spinning.  Check back after you hit some black ice and let me know if your opinion has changed.

Still beyond belief that after you criticized me for "wishing r*in on someone else's mountain" (which I didn't do) that you're going to wish r*in on mine.

Maybe because Gore has crappy conditions and about a third of the mountain open you want Whiteface to get r*in to bring us down to your level.

Sno your last post is so loco I can't even unravel it. Relax.

I don't wish rain on any skier. No one is hiding:

Well, I wasn't really sure I wanted to go to Gore today, but my friends wanted to go, and now I am,i the passenger seat almost there. It's 44, but there's a ton of #snow on the ground. Looks like it may have snowed yesterday, but travel conditions are just fine. For some reason they had to take the back roads rather than the interstate so it's taking a long time do get up there. The territory West of the Northway seems to have a ton of Snow. I'll report back on conditions later.

I'll take all you trumpsters on!!  At the same time!!

cadence lodge in Wilmington.  its like a 120 bucks a night and on the weekends you get a nice breakfast.  

Gore was't bad at all considering the rain last night. According to my buddy who spend the night up there said it was "fucking pouring!" There was a little drizzle when I arrived, but it stopped before long. By mid-day they were blowing on Open Pit which was encouraging. Not sure why they didn't light up more guns up there. It's a lot to set up to blow one short trail, but my guess is that they will fire up more guns as the evening goes on. The only thing I didn't like was how little snow they had around the base area. It looked like a thin layer of grey ice with a lot of dirt in it all around the gondola That is really the first thing people see when they are arriving, and it leaves a bad perception of the place. Gore always seems to go skimpy on the base area which I do not understand. They need to make it a priority to pile up more snow in the base area.

The trails that were open were a lot of fun. Not having the dark side was disappointing, but If I had to give this a Sno Report, I would give it a C.

 I also found it interesting that they had a bunch of new double barrel Ratnick guns mounted on their old sleds. I am having a hard time understanding how these new Ratnicks are an upgrade over the old ones. They are just basic air/water guns right? I guess they have two barrels which could theoretically increase production, bit they are still air hogs. They are nice and shiny I guess. Any ideas there?

BTW, the Wyndham in Lake George is $75/night with a great breakfast.

It was really a great day overall. No complaints.

The difference between a C and D is partly based on crowds, so on an uncrowded day, I might give a place a C that really should've gotten a D.

I gave Gore a D for having only one trail open on the North Side, no second route to the summit via AE2, and no way for intermediate skier's to access open intermediate terrain on the summit.  Families tend to want to ski all aspects of a mountain, especially the summit of the resort, and they're pretty much excluded from Gore's summit, unless they're comfortable skiing Uncas, which will be crowded and skied off to bare ice by 10am because it's the only way to get to Straightbrook.  

Gore normally outseats Whiteface in terms of intermediate terrain, but they are behind Whiteface this week.  Whiteface is allowing intermediate skiers access to the summit.  While Paron's is one really hard blue, I've found Follies (which bypasses the steep part of Paron's) to be a much more forgiving trail.  It also has some of the best views off any ski trail in the east.  They also have all intermediate terrain accessible off their gondola open.  The only intermediate runs not open yet are Wilmington Trail and Lower Thruway/Parkway.  That should change in the coming weeks with snowmaking temps returning tonight and continuing for the foreseeable future.

Ethan Snow wrote

 I also found it interesting that they had a bunch of new double barrel Ratnick guns mounted on their old sleds. I am having a hard time understanding how these new Ratnicks are an upgrade over the old ones. They are just basic air/water guns right? I guess they have two barrels which could theoretically increase production, bit they are still air hogs. They are nice and shiny I guess. Any ideas there?

When I was there last week, they had three guns going by the Saddle. Two ground guns and a portable fan gun. The two permanent mount fan guns were not running which I found odd. You would think they would be using permanent fans over ground guns especially if they are light on staff as someone else suggested.

I was thinking of heading up on New Years day but will probably wait a week as they probably won't get much more open by then.

tom

In looking at the Whiteface report, I don't see them making snow on any closed terrain, it's all being done on currently open terrain, which means everyone has to ski under the guns, and they aren't doing anything to expand terrain.

They're getting natural snow, so screw resurfacing terrain that already has a lot of snow on it, blow snow on Skyward and then move onto Lookout.

Scotty saw the guns being set up on Skyward.  Are they still there?

they are still there and not blowing.  the gov skied yesterday so they had to fix it up all nice so he didn't get hurt.  

there are an insane amount of people here!  local biz be making the coin this week!

So now the report shows Skyward under snowmaking, but not Niagara.  I'm guessing it is probably being blown, but is a short trail and wasn't listed.

For Whiteface, I see the meh pattern continuing with snowmaking temps, but another wet day on Tuesday with highs in the mid 30's.  According to the 8-14 day NOAA long range, things will get cold again afterwards and stay that way.

Right now they're blowing Skyward, and I think that takes about 4-5 days to finish.  They were also resurfacing Essex and Approach, and those trails don't have permanent towers.  Once the lower mountain resurfacing efforts are done (should be with recent natural snowfall), I think they could blow Skyward and Wilderness at the same time.  Wilderness is a must for the bump contest coming up.

Before I was saying to cover some more LWF trails before moving to Lookout and Wilmington.  However, I'd say that if the forecast looks like a really good cold period next week, I'd say go straight to Wilmington.  Take advantage of the long cold period while you have it.  Once Wilmington is done, and done well, the rest can be covered quickly.


Gore just started blowing Lies and I think finished Open Pit.  That puts them 2 trails away from opening the entire Straightbrook area.  I think they should blow Chatiemac next, but don't bother with Rumor until all mountain areas are open.  Don't be saying I'm just but hurt that I can't ski Rumor and don't want it blown for those who can.  I can and have skied it, but it takes a lot of snow to cover that would be better used getting other lifts on-line.

They're also blowing Twister on the lower mountain.  Once Lies is finished, move the guns to Chatiemac and then open the Dark Side and more North Side terrain.  The snowmaking currently going to Twister should go to Echo once Twister is done, and then Sagamore.  

You can't ski Rumor.

Once our man petit homme finishes up one ski on WF , rumor be no big deal. Hell he will straight line that 100 foot headwall!

Whiteface report shows blowing on Skyward to Niagara, but also Glen?  I didn't think that cutoff had snowmaking.  Maybe they meant to list Weber's Way, which is right below it, both on the report and map.

They also need to open Victoria Shoot to allow skiers on Victoria to bypass the Summit Express bottleneck.

I'm worried that they'll decide to put all terrain expansion on hold after the Tuesday/Wednesday warmup.  Starting Wednesday night looks to be a good cold period, and that would be the perfect opportunity to blow Wilmington Trail, which is a prerequisite to opening Hoyt's.  

Edit:  MLK Weekend is also Chevy Owner Appreciation Weekend, which always brings in large crowds.  Opening all lifts by then is an absolute must, or I'm skiing elsewhere.

snoloco wrote

Opening all lifts by then is an absolute must, or I'm skiing elsewhere.

Oh I am sure WF management will take that with the utmost seriousness.

Something tells me this is going to be a long season for the WF crowd, maybe you guys can get Pratt to appoint SnoBlowco as the Mtn manager...