Considering that folks here posted about what they were seeing on the cams it is no surprise that they are now turned off. Both to avoid the State threatening them as to crowds/masking and due to the conditions..
-
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!
The "Sugarbush Thread"
- Thread starter thetrailboss
- Start date
I loved that. Exterminator was fun.
Love me some FIS. It has had snowmaking as long as I can remember.
As said, it’s too steep to hold natural snow. Skier’s left was always consistent in terms of decent conditions.
Slidebrook87
Active member
I could very well be wrong, but aren’t there snowmaking hydrants still on Exterminator? I could’ve sworn I remembered seeing one when I skied it last.
Yes, they're still there along skier's left. They're a couple feet out into the trail, so you can easily ski around them too. I can't remember the last time they used them though. And Exterminator is a trail that skis just fine with only natural snow so I'm fine with not making snow there.
Slidebrook87
Active member
Looks like they can be seen exactly as you described them in this photo.
Castlerockrisk
New member
- Joined
- Nov 24, 2016
- Messages
- 24
- Points
- 3
Exterminator used to have glades and when they installed snowmaking they cut the trees down. Niot sure about the year. Fis traditionally hosted the turkey tumble - a pretty good bump contest on thanks giving. On many years Fis had snowmaking on the slope around the ski and skate sale mid November. Mt Ellen was electric in those days and the vibe was so positive. The decks on all the lodges had great barbecues and the beer was flowing from kegs. It was the place to be early and late season. The bump skiing and skill level of the skiers was fun to be part of. Sking Fis to cliffs in the spring with vw sized bumps into late April and May was a given. Even though the snow making was limited they added air to the snow and it was better than the snow thirty years later. Go figure - cheap energy and archaic snow guns with loud compressors made snow that was pretty good.
ss20
Well-known member
Yep. In my humble opinion an old Ratnik "air hog" from 30 years ago makes better snow than a new $20k fan gun. Of course, only if the ops are putting a crapload of air in the Ratnik. Also those old in-house K and SR ground guns make amazing snow when you're running (almost literally) a compressor's worth of air into them hahaha.
jaybird
Active member
- Joined
- Sep 26, 2012
- Messages
- 277
- Points
- 28
.. Spring Fling .. SKI magazine party
Slidebrook87
Active member
So is it true that Killington has their own guns? They looked pretty unique and old school to me compared to the HKD guns I’m used to seeing.
ss20
Well-known member
Yes they developed their own guns in the 80s and 90s (and perhaps before as well....many places did their own thing in the early days of snowmaking). Most "famous" is the K3000 which they still use frequently. If you do a post search of highwaystar on KillingtonZone you'll find all kinds of info on it.
Highwaystar. That's a guy I have not seen in a while.
ss20
Well-known member
I tried @'ing him on this site and his name didn't pop up...wondering if he deleted his account. He started the k zone mega covid thread in early March and accurately sounded the alarm on the topic. His ego probably got so big he exploded
While he was mostly a troll he had accumulated a huuuuge amount of knowledge on the industry and Killingtons snowmaking system.
Slidebrook87
Active member
For anyone that has been at Sugarbush today or yesterday, where are they currently making snow, if at all? From Win’s comments I assume they’re working on North Lynx and Lookin Good, but I obviously don’t know for sure since I am not there right now.
Were blowing birch on NL and started some on murphys.
machski
Well-known member
Not sure the year, but most likely when LBO came to town and swung the GMX to the North Ridge
Not sure the exact year, but I do believe Exterminator got widened and Snowmaking added when LBO came to town and moved GMX to become the North Ridge Express. He focused a lot on that new pod he created with the lift move at North.
Going back to the historical trail maps, looks like Exterminator snowmaking was installed the same year as all the other upper mountain snowmaking (for the 1979-1980 season).
95% of LBO work was at South. The only work that was done at North was moving GMX to Northridge and installing the Slug. No snowmaking work, it already had almost 90% coverage. The huge focus was at South. Hard to believe a mountain of that size had such a feeble snowmaking system.
Similar threads
