• Welcome to AlpineZone, the largest online community of skiers and snowboarders in the Northeast!

    You may have to REGISTER before you can post. Registering is FREE, gets rid of the majority of advertisements, and lets you participate in giveaways and other AlpineZone events!

Killington Trail Expansion

skiur

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 27, 2012
Messages
1,577
Points
113
Well tell that to Jeff Temple head of mountain operations at Killington who wrote this:

"In the snowmaking business, your “manufacturing plant” has a set amount of air and water it can produce at any given time based on temperature. If temperatures are higher than the mid-teens, we are on the “air side of the curve,” meaning plenty of water and a large air producing plant coupled with low energy snow guns allows us to operate a maximum number of snowguns, over 200 at once. As temperatures drop below mid-teens, we go to the “water side of the curve,” and crews can send more water to each snowgun allowing each gun to produce a lot more snow, reducing number of guns needed but maintaining quality snow consistency".

Read what you post, Jeff said "coupled with low energy snow guns" Last I checked the k3000 guns which they were mostly using in nov and dec are not low E guns. It also said that when temps drop they send MORE water to each gun which further supports what I am saying which is in warm temps they need more air.
 

steamboat1

New member
Joined
Aug 15, 2011
Messages
6,613
Points
0
Location
Brooklyn,NY/Pittsford,VT.
I'm not disagreeing with you. I said they can run more guns with higher temperatures because water is not the limiting factor. What K choose to use early season is up to them. Other areas seemed to do perfectly fine using low-e guns, Sunday River for example. The bigger reason areas couldn't expand early season is because they didn't have snowmaking temperatures at lower elevations. In that case it didn't matter whether they used K3000's or low-e guns they just couldn't make snow.
 

MEtoVTSkier

Active member
Joined
Jan 25, 2011
Messages
1,234
Points
38
Location
Aroostook County, ME
Makes perfect sense, and is why "how many guns are running" doesn't necessarily tell the whole story. If it's warm and you can only flow a small amount of water thru the guns to make snow vs. having a bunch of over-priced lawn sprinklers going then 1000 guns with pinhole nozzles going is definitely going to look more impressive (from a distance, or read about on the interwebz) than 100 guns with pencil sized nozzles blasting out 10x the snow in much lower temps... same amount of water either way, but yes, you'll need more air in the warmer temps if you are running more guns, or guns with a higher air requirement.

:fangun:
 

joshua segal

Active member
Joined
Jan 31, 2014
Messages
991
Points
43
Location
Southern NH
Website
skikabbalah.com
I guess there are two ways of looking at things with respect to Killington:

Some would say, Killington has been slow to open new terrain and to get Snowshed up and running.

Others would say, Killington knows its market:
They have been open more days than anyone else.

Who was talking about snowshed?? I am speaking of the mountain in general. Skeptical on man made snow by beginning skiers? I dont think most beginners know or care about the difference in man made / natural snow.

Perhaps I was not clear. so I will try again. I said, "They (i.e. Killington) have been open more days than anyone else." My point was they have consistently tried to maintain and resurface their open terrain (and keep it open) rather than expand terrain. I think Killington leads the east in skier visits (and if not, they are close). Snow has a finite life and with Killington's traffic, they can't just blow it, groom it and leave it like other areas with much lighter traffic.

The comment on Snowshed was an additional point about where they chose to expand open terrain.
 

MEtoVTSkier

Active member
Joined
Jan 25, 2011
Messages
1,234
Points
38
Location
Aroostook County, ME
Ramshead a couple mins ago...

Still ski-on with a fresh 7". Hope it helps them get Header and Timberline open soon.

attachment.php


Still ski on with the fresh 7" on a holiday...
 

Attachments

  • Ramshead 1.18.16 0934.jpg
    Ramshead 1.18.16 0934.jpg
    42.3 KB · Views: 112

MEtoVTSkier

Active member
Joined
Jan 25, 2011
Messages
1,234
Points
38
Location
Aroostook County, ME
Guess I blew it and should have headed to Killington today, who'd have thought. 7" pow day, and nobody there on a Holiday Monday. From what I'm seeing, Rams Quad ski on and mostly empty, Canyon Quad mostly empty, SkyPeak Express going up with empty chairs, SuperStar going up with empty chairs....
 

dlague

Active member
Joined
Nov 7, 2012
Messages
8,792
Points
36
Location
CS, Colorado
Everyone south of VT border saw rain and bagged on Saturday it I guess.


Sent from my iPhone using AlpineZone
 

ALLSKIING

Moderator
Staff member
Moderator
Joined
Jan 6, 2005
Messages
6,968
Points
48
Location
East Setauket,NY/Killington,VT
Guess I blew it and should have headed to Killington today, who'd have thought. 7" pow day, and nobody there on a Holiday Monday. From what I'm seeing, Rams Quad ski on and mostly empty, Canyon Quad mostly empty, SkyPeak Express going up with empty chairs, SuperStar going up with empty chairs....

Yep, and all the weekenders head south today and don't ski.....fri and Monday of this weekend are usually the only days I ski it.
 

Highway Star

Active member
Joined
Sep 27, 2005
Messages
2,921
Points
36
Well tell that to Jeff Temple head of mountain operations at Killington who wrote this:

"In the snowmaking business, your “manufacturing plant” has a set amount of air and water it can produce at any given time based on temperature. If temperatures are higher than the mid-teens, we are on the “air side of the curve,” meaning plenty of water and a large air producing plant coupled with low energy snow guns allows us to operate a maximum number of snowguns, over 200 at once. As temperatures drop below mid-teens, we go to the “water side of the curve,” and crews can send more water to each snowgun allowing each gun to produce a lot more snow, reducing number of guns needed but maintaining quality snow consistency".

Good info. I'd be curious about what it temp and gun combination it takes for them to get air-limited overall, say when they are running hundreds of guns with all their air, but can't use all their water. For example, at 20-22F, you would think they could come close max water output, without maxing their air, using all low-e guns.
 

MEtoVTSkier

Active member
Joined
Jan 25, 2011
Messages
1,234
Points
38
Location
Aroostook County, ME
Just scanned all the cams again real quick. Lots of chairs going up empty, place looks like a ghost town. Definitely was the day to go.

Although that can't be good for the bottom line, and I'm sure it's not helping future improvements arrive any sooner.
 

drjeff

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 18, 2006
Messages
19,183
Points
113
Location
Brooklyn, CT
From my experience of having skied lots of MLK Monday's, the crowd fall off from Sunday to Monday is usually quite substantial! While most kids have the day off from school, plenty of businesses are open, and many of the people who haven't skied very much often end up bagging the 3rd day if they bought 3 day tickets out of tiredness/soreness
 

cdskier

Well-known member
Joined
Mar 26, 2015
Messages
6,416
Points
113
Location
NJ
I always tend to forget it is even a holiday as I usually have work on Monday of MLK weekend and know many others working today as well (in fact I'm posting this right now from my office).
 
Top