The "Sugarbush Thread"

[cdskier]

Is there my reason why there is no snowmaking going on? Seems like it’s cold enough. Did they just shut off snowmaking on SF so the Swiss team can train and then they will turn it back on for the paying customers tomorrow?

Odd...I saw the snowmakers heading up HG last night. (I also briefly caught a glimpse of one snow-maker sliding down in front of Allyn's lodge on that cam last night too). Hope they didn't run into an issue. The snowmaking icons next to Jester, OG, and DS are all gone now from the report too. They were there last night. So seems they had planned to make snow up top, but something changed.

 

[slatham]

Per their web site its 18 at summit and 26 at mid at 10am. So they had temps last night, and still do. So that makes we worry.......

For reference, Stratton is actively making snow from 2,500' and up........

 

[Hawk]

Maybe they ran out of water. They will have plenty after Friday it appears.

 

[cdskier]

Per their web site its 18 at summit and 26 at mid at 10am. So they had temps last night, and still do. So that makes we worry.......

For reference, Stratton is actively making snow from 2,500' and up........

Yup...and I want to say it was around 16 at the summit when I went to sleep last night. Definitely cause for concern...

 

[djd66]

Maybe they ran out of water. They will have plenty after Friday it appears.

Not good if they ran out of water (this early in the season) after only blowing on 2 trails. If that is the case (and I have no idea if it is) $7mm on new equipment seems like a waste.

 

[cdskier]

Another crew headed up HG a little while ago. Guns are visible as being on at the top of Jester now...if something was wrong, it must be fixed now. Still not good to lose a solid 12-18 hours of upper mountain snow-making time.

 

[jimmywilson69]

do you have their youtube channel running at all times

 

[cdskier]

do you have their youtube channel running at all times

LOL...no. I just take a quick peak at it between meetings (although this week is pretty quiet at work as tons of people are on vacation). Don't forget that you can quickly rewind the cams over the past 12 hours or so on Youtube...so I don't need to see things in real time to actually see them!

 

[jimmywilson69]

I wasn't aware of the rewind... I'll check that out

 

[cdskier]

Yea...that's a great feature. Otherwise there's virtually no chance I'd see most of the things I mention.

 

[shadyjay]

Speaking from experience, there could have been numerous issues preventing the guns from running. There could have been a bad hydrant or other leak/issue. Water you can isolate on certain sections of the mountain (depending on where you're making snow) but air is pretty much a constant all over the mountain (except North Lynx I believe). If something happens to an air hydrant on Hot Shot, you have to shut the whole system down, repair, then fire it back up. And it ain't turnkey... it all takes time. Early season I recall having to search numerous trails looking for open air hydrants, under the cover of darkness.

Rest assured, they'll get it done.

 

[jaybird]

You could see Jester was lit up today tho guns and hoses above Valley House lift were dormant.
Temp was rather warm.
Golf balls everywhere on Spring Fling.

Lara Gut skiing very well

 

[Newpylong]

Speaking from experience, there could have been numerous issues preventing the guns from running. There could have been a bad hydrant or other leak/issue. Water you can isolate on certain sections of the mountain (depending on where you're making snow) but air is pretty much a constant all over the mountain (except North Lynx I believe). If something happens to an air hydrant on Hot Shot, you have to shut the whole system down, repair, then fire it back up. And it ain't turnkey... it all takes time. Early season I recall having to search numerous trails looking for open air hydrants, under the cover of darkness.

Rest assured, they'll get it done.

God it's the worst when a hiker decides to open a ball valve in the middle of nowhere and walk away. Hey why isn't the air coming up? Lol. 2 hours later and lot of riding/walking around listening...

 

[jaybird]

Rampant societal dysfunction .. Sucks
Snow makers deserve better

 

[dustyroads]

Maybe Jeff can confirm this. While walking at the snow pond I meet a guy who said, they are having problems with the new dam. He said, the dam is not allowing the pond to refill fast enough. The pond was very low on Monday evening.

 

[tumbler]

If true, that is not good. I was a bit skeptical of how an inflatable dam would work in the river especially when the sediment builds up behind it and when the flow picks up. I hope they can get it worked out.

 

[HowieT2]

If true, that is not good. I was a bit skeptical of how an inflatable dam would work in the river especially when the sediment builds up behind it and when the flow picks up. I hope they can get it worked out.

I'm no engineer but that doesnt seem like rocket science

 

[djd66]

They used an inflatable dam for a multi million dollar snowmaking system?

 

[Keelhauled]

My understanding was that it's not really a dam but more of a weir to divert water into the snowmaking reservoir, not to create a reservoir itself. I imagine actually damming the river with a permanent structure was a total nonstarter both financially and regulatory.

 

[djd66]

I hate to try and speculate as I have ZERO knowledge of their snowmaking pond, but if they have an issue getting enough water - if will be a tough season. Lets hope we get 300" of natural and problem is solved until next summer.