Wet Weather Sux

tjf1967 wrote

I certainly would like to see my home mountain install more pumping capacity. Lots more.  It would be nice when the temps are down the entire mountain blown.  I also think there was not enough corporal punishment dished out at sno house.

HAHA, guess NJ was right about that one

snoloco wrote

Character and snowmaking are not mutually exclusive.  In a good snow year natural snow covers the manmade snow unless you resurface which nature does for you in a good year.  I have always preferred to ski something over nothing.

They usually are mutually exclusive. Snowmaking requires wider and straighter trails. But even if they usually were not... how ski areas manage snow making trails is radically different than how they manage natural snow trails.

I am very much okay with a ski area laying down a man made base and then letting the trail go natural after the base has been laid. But the fact is that this almost never happens. If a ski area blows snow on a trail, they almost always mow the trail flat every night. I can't think of many trails that receive a full base build of snow making but they are allowed to retain natural snow conditions instead of getting mowed (late spring season excluded).

River... those years ago when we were on Upper Hard (?) at Cannon.... was that all natural or did it get a manmade base?

Sno you would have hated it.  Big icy bumps, ice, frozen dirt and piles of nice pow.  Not enough of it but nice snow.

We went down knowing it was a risk (or at least River knew).

We found ourselves leaping from bump to bump as the tops had the snow.  

It was nuts but when we got to the bottom, we went back up and did it again.

MC was there, SBR too.

Yea, Upper/Middle Hardscrabble is natural snow only.