Killllington 🎿🏂🏂🎿🎿🏂🏂🎿😀

[joshua segal]

Do any of you know what Killington's total pumping capacity is for this season? Some years ago, I was told 48K gallons per minute for the entire mountain complex, but I'm reasonably sure that's a very old number.

 

[machski]

Do any of you know what Killington's total pumping capacity is for this season? Some years ago, I was told 48K gallons per minute for the entire mountain complex, but I'm reasonably sure that's a very old number.

No way can Killington push that much water a minute. Maybe 12K GPM, but 48K GPM would be tough for a snowmaking team to keep up with.

Also, you have to remember when K used to go into June routinely in the 90's, they would make continuously March into early/mid April on SS and the top of the manmade ridge often pushed 40 feet. Energy was much cheaper back then, and the pipes and system were much younger (thus, more efficient which drops with pipe and pump age). K uses a much more targeted and tech based approach to building out SS to contain costs now and get as close to June as they can. I recall some didn't think they would push as aggressively as they have early season without WC this year. My guess is any expecting them not to bury SS to get late will lose those bets as well. I know they knew Canyon wouldn't last as long last season, but pretty sure Mike and crew were disappointed they didn't get more length than they did. But we have to get through the peak season first.

 

[cdskier]

No way can Killington push that much water a minute. Maybe 12K GPM, but 48K GPM would be tough for a snowmaking team to keep up with.

Agreed. Virtually 0 chance that 48K GPM number was ever accurate. 10-12K GPM is more in line with what I've always heard over the years for as long as I can remember hearing snow-making stats.

 

[millerm277]

Do any of you know what Killington's total pumping capacity is for this season? Some years ago, I was told 48K gallons per minute for the entire mountain complex, but I'm reasonably sure that's a very old number.

Killington has claimed 12k at times, newpylong (I think) has suggested it's more like ~6-7k that they can actually put on the hill at once and not all of that can be sent to one chunk of the mountain.

The "12k" numbers are seemingly including pumping capacity from intakes + between ponds/sections of the mountain that isn't the actual uphill capacity.

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I know I had gone digging in their VT ACT 250 filings a little and there's a few numbers of interest that I ran across in one of them from 2019 (1R0813-9 exhibit 019) that don't fully answer the question but are moderately interesting.

As of 2019 they've got 4 water intakes:

- Falls Brook - gravity intake to Bear Pond - limited only by conservation flow limits.

- Roaring Brook - gravity intake to Snowshed Pond - limited only by conservation flow limits

- Woodward Reservoir - 6000gpm - but this doesn't directly feed the mountain, it gets sent into the Falls/Roaring Brook intakes to go to Bear/Snowshed ponds.

- Ottauquechee River - 1950gpm - can go to the mountain or Bear/Snowshed ponds.

We also get info on Bear - Bear Pond Pumphouse - can go to the mountain or Snowshed - 2,100gpm (Note: K put out a press release this year claiming that they added a 4th pump, going from 1,800 to 2,500gpm - no explanation for the difference between the 2019 permit filing + that for what they had been withdrawing previously)

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Still missing pieces of info to have a particularly clear picture of the actual uphill capacity - most obviously what the pump capacity out of Snowshed Pond is and what conflicts/bottlenecks there are in the distribution system, but it certainly seems like it's pointing more towards newpylong's number than 12k, much less 48k. And how much they can put down on a specific area (like, say, Snowdon) is probably even lower.

Seems like their advantage is more in that they've got practically unlimited draw off Woodward and can keep running endlessly - not so much in what their max output per minute is.

It's also worth noting that the permit application (which was approved) was also to construct a 8" pipeline to Pico to send water to it - so some portion of K's water supplies now get sent over to Pico (which is very water constrained for it's own sources) at times.

 

[Internet Ski Pro]

I thought K was in the 10-12 range as well. and oddly enough, its possible Blue Mt in PA has the largest system in the east with 15k?

But what you can pump, and temperature, we know plays a big role. i am always amazed at what K can do with snowmaking, compared to Blue Mt. It would be interesting to know how high Blue turns the knob on gpm, cause honestly, you would think at 15k/min they should wrap up snowmaking in a jiff. but their weather isnt usually that great, especially early season.

theres this, but i think its been around for a while, and doesnt necessarily give gpm per resort.

The "Kings" In Snowmaking The Largest Systems in US & Canada

Curious how the largest snowmaking systems in North America stack up? From Sunday River to Whistler we show you how big their systems are.

localfreshies.com

 

[joshua segal]

No way can Killington push that much water a minute. Maybe 12K GPM, but 48K GPM would be tough for a snowmaking team to keep up with.

Also, you have to remember when K used to go into June routinely in the 90's, they would make continuously March into early/mid April on SS and the top of the manmade ridge often pushed 40 feet. Energy was much cheaper back then, and the pipes and system were much younger (thus, more efficient which drops with pipe and pump age). K uses a much more targeted and tech based approach to building out SS to contain costs now and get as close to June as they can. I recall some didn't think they would push as aggressively as they have early season without WC this year. My guess is any expecting them not to bury SS to get late will lose those bets as well. I know they knew Canyon wouldn't last as long last season, but pretty sure Mike and crew were disappointed they didn't get more length than they did. But we have to get through the peak season first.

Crotched Mountain can pump 6K gpm for about 80 acres. How much do you think a place with 1500 acres should have?

 

[bigbob]

Crotched Mountain can pump 6K gpm for about 80 acres. How much do you think a place with 1500 acres should have?

But for how long before the pond runs dry? Killington has almost unlimited time from their water sources.

 

[joshua segal]

But for how long before the pond runs dry? Killington has almost unlimited time from their water sources.

A bit over 100 hours if it starts full. They rarely run the full 6K. The electric company complains!

 

[slatham]

Nice to see the new cam, and nice to see snowmaking on upper SS!

 

[urungus]

Had a great first day on Wednesday

Great coverage all over the mountain:


Not mine:


Thought I’d warm up with a few intermediate runs at Snowdon, ski-on everywhere all day


However all runs funnel into this single section of Bunny Buster / Mousetrap which was a scraped off, iced over nightmare, so headed over to North Ridge


Looking back up Killink:


View of summit from Killink:


Ridge Run:


Ridge Run:


Ridge Run:

 

[urungus]

Powerline:


Powerline:


Powerline:




Walkway was only used 3 days this year, and only at end of day:

 

[urungus]

VT 100;


Sunset over Okemo:

 

[urungus]

Also someone on KZone posted this picture of load test on new Superstar lift, won’t be long now:

 

[letitsnow1]

It's cool to see the snowmaking on superstar but you can already see where the S will form, theres a gap right above the fan guns. Didn't they redo the snowmaking on lower SS to avoid that?

 

[slatham]

Great pics thanks for posting! Hoping my season starts soon.

 

[Newpylong]

It's cool to see the snowmaking on superstar but you can already see where the S will form, theres a gap right above the fan guns. Didn't they redo the snowmaking on lower SS to avoid that?

They redid the snowmaking there because the last guns were getting water starved by the time the pipe diameter tapered down. So they made a shorter loop, with the new upline coming up through the woods skiers right, crossing the trail above Preston's then back down.

These are the first hours of snowmaking there, it's premature to foretell what the snowpack will look like in the spring. None of the equipment has been moved yet, the other side hasn't run, no grooming, etc.

 

[KustyTheKlown]

Slept til 5 am in my own bed and made first chair at killington. This Hudson valley living is pretty sweet so far.

Fun first day turns. Nothin crazy