Snowmaking in March

ERJ-145CA · Mar 5, 2017

My two local mountains, Mountain Creek and Mt. Peter have been making snow the last couple of days to extend the season. The temps the last couple of days have allowed snowmaking around the clock.

The snow at Mt. Peter today was actually very nice. I should find out how Mountain Creek is tomorrow. I don't remember Mountain Creek ever blowing snow after Presidents Day before.

Quietman · Mar 5, 2017

Picture as promised, I apologize for the quality, I was driving at the time. ;-)

SIKSKIER · Mar 6, 2017

Cannon will be making snow snow all week when possible.The skiing on Sunday was crazy good.I'm impressed big time with the sm effort.But even the trails that didn't get new snow were skiing fantastic.Almost everything at the top was great.I finished up on Mittersill yesterday afternoon and had some of my best high speed runs down Barons.Wow!

SIKSKIER · Mar 6, 2017

Cannon was killing it this weekend with snowmaking.Rocket looked like something out of Dr Seuss Whoville.

Jcb890 · Mar 6, 2017

xlr8r said:
Loon skied real good today actually. Walking Boss was worth lapping with the fresh snow they made on it, did it 5 times. Almost all the main runs on the main mountain had recent snowmaking. South Peak though was a skating rink with no new snow and the wind angle making it somewhat dangerous over there. They should have had South Peak closed

I was with my wife, so we stuck to mostly the blues off of the gondola, but I'll have to disagree somewhat. Compared to what it was prior (recently), it may have rode/skied well, but compared to just a few weeks ago, conditions were much worse yesterday. We both thought that conditions were very variable yesterday throughout the mountain. There were sections which were nicely groomed and had nice edge-able snow. However, there were also a lot of sections which quickly turned to ice/boilerplate. So, you would go from a section where you could nicely hold an edge to the next one where you'd go to dig that edge in and it would just not bite. I just found it tough to feel confident with the adverse conditions.

That said, it looked like they had decent coverage on all of the groomed/snowmaking trails. We also had a fun day taking what the mountain gave us.

At this point, I'm rooting for either natural snow or for warmer spring conditions. What we've got now just kind of sucks for on-snow conditions.

spiderpig · Mar 6, 2017

Per today's snow report, Killington to blow snow again later this week when temps drop again, and it sounds like more than just Superstar.

xlr8r · Mar 6, 2017

Jcb890 said:
I was with my wife, so we stuck to mostly the blues off of the gondola, but I'll have to disagree somewhat. Compared to what it was prior (recently), it may have rode/skied well, but compared to just a few weeks ago, conditions were much worse yesterday. We both thought that conditions were very variable yesterday throughout the mountain. There were sections which were nicely groomed and had nice edge-able snow. However, there were also a lot of sections which quickly turned to ice/boilerplate. So, you would go from a section where you could nicely hold an edge to the next one where you'd go to dig that edge in and it would just not bite. I just found it tough to feel confident with the adverse conditions.

That said, it looked like they had decent coverage on all of the groomed/snowmaking trails. We also had a fun day taking what the mountain gave us.

At this point, I'm rooting for either natural snow or for warmer spring conditions. What we've got now just kind of sucks for on-snow conditions.

I thought that the trails they had made snow on skied really good especially when you compare it to the trails that did not have any snowmaking since the blowtorch. With the exception of checking out South Peak which was a mistake, I just stuck to the trails that had fresh man made snow. On North Peak Walking Boss was excellent, Flume pretty good, Sunset got scraped down, but it usually does. Upper mountain of Loon Peak, Bear Claw, and Picked Rock were great throughout the day, Flying Fox started out good but got scraped off. Lower Mountain, Lower Picked Rock, and Seven Brother were excellent, especially for some high speed carving, Lower bear Claw also had good snow, but a little crowded with beginners. They could have made some snow on another trail in the West Basin, as Lower Picked Rock was the only trail with fresh snow serviced by the Kanc quad that I noticed.

Of course conditions were worse than 2 weeks ago, but that is the case everywhere in New England. I thought Loon recovered well, again with the caveat of South Peak.

chuckstah · Mar 6, 2017

machski said:
Sunday River gets a fail for this round of snowmaking. Something is going on, Thursday nights terrain was atrocious Friday with little put down and last night they cut back from their stated plans. Tough to swallow, especially when top of White Cap needed to be replenished big time. Doesn't seem to justify again forking over more $$ for passes. Lift issues and now maybe snowmaking system issues? Infrastructure starting to come into question.

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It looks like SR will try snow making again this week starting Thursday, according to today's report. I hope it goes better this time. I don't think I'm renewing my pass, but a major late season effort could change my mind, as it did last season.

Cornhead · Mar 6, 2017

Skied Holiday Valley Sunday. Some impressive whales, wales, or wails, made in preparation for their end of the season Mardi gras celebration next weekend. Too bad they couldn't spread some around for Sunday. They were fun to ski though. Some youngsters were getting some nice air off them.

They actually put a sign warning of avalanches on their short, steep, trail, The Wall after this slide of man-made happened a few years ago.

It wasn't open, but looked rock skiable.

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drjeff · Mar 6, 2017

The Cold air we had last weekend can get fairly quickly all of the BIG whales we've seen in pictures, since they're running little air and almost all water!!

Don't touch the water ladened whales with the cats until after the mid/late week post freeze up event, when the cats will have a bunch of drier snow to push out over the trails

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machski · Mar 6, 2017

chuckstah said:
It looks like SR will try snow making again this week starting Thursday, according to today's report. I hope it goes better this time. I don't think I'm renewing my pass, but a major late season effort could change my mind, as it did last season.

Had a bunch of issues in the system crop up last weekend that hamstrung them from doing what they wanted. I figured it had to be mechanical, crummy timing but what can you do. Stuff happens. Hopefully it's straightened out now.

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Newpylong · Mar 7, 2017

People forget (don't know to begin with?) how complex a snowmaking system is and what it takes to get online. Even the big boys have unavoidable issues from time to time.

drjeff · Mar 7, 2017

Newpylong said:
People forget (don't know to begin with?) how complex a snowmaking system is and what it takes to get online. Even the big boys have unavoidable issues from time to time.

.
You mean that trying to push large volumes of water through miles of metal pipe up a mountain in below zero temperatures can be a challenge?? ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-)

kingslug · Mar 7, 2017

Most people have no idea how they make snow. A tour through the pump house would enlighten them.

Jcb890 · Mar 7, 2017

Not everyone who drinks beer cares how it is made or wants to go on a brewery tour. Most people have no idea how hard it is to make quality beer and how much work goes into it. It doesn't really matter though.

It isn't like these mountains are giving away cheap lift tickets. Considering the cost of admission or a season pass, the mountains should be blowing snow any chance they get (for the most part) when it is needed. If the mountain(s) fails to do so, you'll see people won't renew their season passes or won't go there, like you have seen evidenced in this thread. Hard or not, it is a job that needs to be done. Issues do happen though due to the nature of the difficult job at hand. When that happens, the mountain is usual open about it and does their best.

Smellytele · Mar 7, 2017

Cornhead said:
Skied Holiday Valley Sunday. Some impressive whales, wales, or wails, made in preparation for their end of the season Mardi gras celebration next weekend. Too bad they couldn't spread some around for Sunday. They were fun to ski though. Some youngsters were getting some nice air off them.

Mardi Gras was last Tuesday.

andrec10 · Mar 9, 2017

Hunter posted they will be making snow again!

drjeff · Mar 9, 2017

I'm guessing that the majority of the mountains that had the guns running last weekend, will turn them back on this weekend as well

Gotta at least create a few marketing dept photo ops for the early purchase deadlines looming........

If any decent base addition happens at more than say the traditional late season players, all the better....

With what next week *could* be cold and snow wise, this weekend could likely be the last time the guns are running at most, if not all mountains in the East this season

Cornhead · Mar 9, 2017

Smellytele said:
Mardi Gras was last Tuesday.

Winter Carnival, that's what you get for listening to friends.

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SIKSKIER · Mar 9, 2017

Back on at Cannon for at least another 4 days I'm told.

Snowmaking in March

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