2020-21 Sunday River

[sugarbushskier]

I hate to say it, but the Jordan lift typically gets the most wind holds. If it is windy at the River, it's likely to be windiest at Jordan. Little white Cap at the far other end seldom shuts down for wind, as it is well protected. White Cap (Tempest) seems to keep running in the wind. Barker, when it isn't breaking down (just kidding) can be fairly reliable. After that, it is pretty much up in the air based upon wind direction.

When I see 15 MPH winds or so, that seems to be a benchmark for when lifts will be shut down, more or less. You might be okay.

View attachment 50111

Thanks! That's my feeling exactly about wind speed and lift holds at mountains. I'll try to get out of Jordan area quickly, but hoping to get in a lot of terrain this weekend and looking to avoid the crowds and weather as much as possible.

I've got a negative covid test in hand and ready to ski!

 

[machski]

Thanks! That's my feeling exactly about wind speed and lift holds at mountains. I'll try to get out of Jordan area quickly, but hoping to get in a lot of terrain this weekend and looking to avoid the crowds and weather as much as possible.

I've got a negative covid test in hand and ready to ski!

Since you are staying out that side of the resort, the Oz Quad is quite insulated from NW winds and typically will run long after Jordan/Aurora/Spruce/Chondi go on wind hold. They have been known to keep running that quad as an isolated pod. They don't usually spin it until 10am Sat/Sun, keep an eye on it if winds kick up. Was hoping they would have started making snow on Eureka by now, the guns have been setup since this past weekend. Perhaps they froze a valve or two. If they get started by tomorrow, that run could open this weekend.

 

[Newpylong]

They are running at reduced capacity due to peak power usage periods, shutting down from 4-8pm daily. Not sure how long that'll go for, but expansion will be slow while that's occurring on the grid.

 

[machski]

They are running at reduced capacity due to peak power usage periods, shutting down from 4-8pm daily. Not sure how long that'll go for, but expansion will be slow while that's occurring on the grid.

Interesting, must be beyond their bulk power buy window. Makes sense as normally they would have hit everythng by now and just be in snow maintenance mode.

 

[Newpylong]

Correct. One is consumption over time (kWh - which can be part of a bulk purchase) and the other is apparent usage aka demand (kVa) ie peak usage which can be curtailed.

 

[machski]

The past couple days, Jordan lift has felt like it had a few square wheels on some of the upper towers. And the lift was closed today. Just guessing here, but maybe they were changing out wheels and bearings???? Anyone got the skinny on this?

The Mountain Report this morning said lift maintenance was dealing with a mechanical issue on Jordan and would start the day closed. No specifics. Did they run Oz in its stead?

 

[sugarbushskier]

I was wondering as well if the Jordan lift has been repaired. Arriving tomorrow and staying at the hotel so would rather not have to use the other lift if possible.

 

[parahelia]

We are heading home tomorrow after an extended stay at our place at SR. I have to say, I’m 100% happy with the effort put forth this season. Snowmaking has been full on, they have covered nearly everything (I think they said 100 trails open?). Lots of fun whales to be had on Vortex, Top Gun, etc. The open naturals (like Upper Cut, Locke Line) were great and lightly trafficked. The MLK storm plus the little refreshes all week long really improved things.

Only complaint is the woods still aren’t really ready. I went in Wizard’s Gulch when they opened it, but it was pretty bony. One more good storm and those should be good to go, too.

Above all, just grateful to be skiing this year.

 

[parahelia]

I was scammed, please disregard.

You had us worried there!!

 

[machski]

After an absolute Cyclone of a weekend wind wise, Monday was a breath of fresh air and felt downright balmy. Treated to some Monday treats as well, with Crumba opening and skiing very nicely thanks to the consistent traffic to break up the crust. Celestial Debuted as well, though very little traffic making for a tough slog through the inch of now hardened crust. Quantum Leap also opened after being under the guns for several days and skied great, a dry edgabe chalk surface. Noticed they tossed in the new SMI guns on the make, couldn't discern a difference in surface quality between those or the tried and trusty SR7's. Eureka still set up, hopefully they get to that in time for a weekend open. All the groomed trails skied great today, probably helps from many getting multiple days of grooming in with little to no traffic down them. The ungroomed got a bit of fill from the wind, just enough to make some of the scratchy stuff fun again. Back on Thursday.

 

[Newpylong]

SR7 aka ASC Gun, aka LAB7 depending on what mountain you're at. It is a 7 holed round gun that I consider one of if not the best all around air hog ever made. That along with possibly the K2000.

Not rebar per se, but yes they are on a steel tripod. Also they are tower mounted like on White Heat at SR, Outer Limits at K, Superstar at K, etc. Where you need decent throw.

I don't have any super clear pictures but here are a few from last year I took setting them up.

 

[machski]

Sunday River has been testing these two new guns from SMI recently on both the Rocking Chair and Quantum makes.


The first is a Grizzly and it looked good in production. That one is currently at QL right at the backside junction. The second is a Freedom X and I was totally impressed with that thing when they had it in use on RC. The quantity and the throw distance were imressive, similar to an SR7 in my opinion from the chair overhead. Both of these are sled mounted ground, haven't seen any on towers yet. Wonder what the resort thinks about them (as in, will we see a lot more of these)?

 

[machski]

I gotta say that I was impressed with these when I saw them running, and really appreciated their small size, making them more mobile.

My guess is, they must have liked what they saw on RC to then run them on QL. Its one thing to test a new gun(s) on a terrain park trail where you just need to make a ton of snow and not be super concerned with quality as it is going to get push, stacked, packed then groomed. But to use on a trail like QL that they do not often groom, they had to feel pretty good about them. Still might be a bit hard to tell about them though, the wind was like a constant jet engine blasting straight up QL all weekend during production.

 

[machski]

Conditions are quite nice, many of the naturals are open. White Cap glades definitely need more. Poppy Fields needs a trim and deadfall cleanup. Green Line is close to unskiable from a few fallen trees, one in particular is almost cutting the line completely off. Blue was fine, Orange needs the undergrowth trimmed big time. Almost looks abandoned right now, underbrush was a good 3 feet above the current snow surface! Should have taken a picture.

 

[machski]

Well, it took a while this season, but Barker has finally broke down on a peak period. Went down today, didn't sound good as they were moving chairs around the top terminal by hand to get folks off it. Given that, probably part of the terminal cadence setup went on the top terminal. Hopefully that is a Poma part.

But hey, Brian called it a good, efficient machine on the SSPC and we definitely need the new Merrill Triple first.

 

[KustyTheKlown]

hows the snow?

 

[machski]

hows the snow?

Not first hand, wife has next week off for school break, groomers are nice, ungroomed is "a bit challenging."

 

[Newpylong]

He also should have been more transparent and agreed that yes, some pipe needs to be replaced asap. Roadrunner is better at irrigation than water distribution to the rest of White Cap. That pipe is toast. Then there is the Backside/Polaris loop which was inoperative this season.

He likely was just turned off by the insinuation that patches add to the overall reduction in pressure due to friction loss. That person evidently read one too many white papers and has never operated a snowmaking system.

 

[machski]

He also should have been more transparent and agreed that yes, some pipe needs to be replaced asap. Roadrunner is better at irrigation than water distribution to the rest of White Cap. That pipe is toast. Then there is the Backside/Polaris loop which was inoperative this season.

He likely was just turned off by the insinuation that patches add to the overall reduction in pressure due to friction loss. That person evidently read one too many white papers and has never operated a snowmaking system.

True, that was a crazy question. The Roadrunner pipe is a big deal, far too many blowouts over the last hand full of years. I will miss seeing the bubbling "springs" along the Barker road stream. The backside pipe not so much a big deal. That line is such a narrow gauge pipe and the trail is more nordic than alpine anyway. Polaris is ok, always thought the very top of Quantum off North Peak summit should be renamed Polaris and dropped to green, Quantum should start at the backside/Polaris split. It's funny, Stuart said it but I wouldn't trust the life expectancy of any materials used in the LBO era. They all should be suspect.

 

[Newpylong]

Yep, the pipe they put in in that era was junk, ask Sugarbush. A lot of cheap valve stations too. Some of the stuff I've seen at the River made me cringe.