A BIG snowmaking D'OH!!!

[drjeff]

The picture is IMPRESSIVE!! :-o

http://www.saminfo.com/news/boyne-mountain-snowmaking-pipe-fails-floods-slope

 

[jimmywilson69]

Holy crap. Wasn't anyone watching the line pressure? clearly they should've known when a blowout happened especially if it was enough flow to undermine a lift tower.

can you say fired?

 

[mriceyman]

damm that had to be a crapload of water pouring out.. good thing its not a main lift for them

 

[Smellytele]

Pats Peak had a pipe issue last week as well with some leakage down under the Vortex lift but nothing that sever.

 

[thetrailboss]

 

[bdfreetuna]

On the bright side, soon they will be the only midwestern ski area to offer "bowl skiing".

 

[BenedictGomez]

What on earth? I dont even.........

 

[sull1102]

How does that... I don't understand.

 

[skisheep]

Fail. That is all.

In all seriousness, someone should be getting fired over that. Whoever was responsible for that pipe messed up big time...

-skisheep

 

[Telemechanic]

We shouldn't make assumptions that lead to blame. You could assume the Pump operator did notice a sudden change in the system and shut down the pumps or had the pipe isolated with a valve. It would take time for the pressure to dissipate and all the water in the pipe still has to drain. They reported the break was on the lower part of the trail, the pipe was 6 inches and I measured the lift at over 1800 feet. 3000 gallons of water could've drained after the pumps stopped.

 

[drjeff]

We shouldn't make assumptions that lead to blame. You could assume the Pump operator did notice a sudden change in the system and shut down the pumps or had the pipe isolated with a valve. It would take time for the pressure to dissipate and all the water in the pipe still has to drain. They reported the break was on the lower part of the trail, the pipe was 6 inches and I measured the lift at over 1800 feet. 3000 gallons of water could've drained after the pumps stopped.

Tele makes some GREAT points!

Once the blowout happened, given the temps in Michigan recently, Boyne HAD to get the water out of both sides of that line before shuting everything down or else they'd quickly be left with not just a broken, FIXABLE pipe, but a broken, frozen solid pipe that in order to use again for the rest of the season, they'd have to break out the torches and thaw the entire pipe

This blowout while impressive and damaging will be less labor intensive to fix with some fill, and concrete and new pipe than if the fill, concrete, new pipe and thawing of the rest of the pipe

 

[Vortex]

Telmechanic has some history with the snow making process. Some stuff I did not know. Good post.

 

[conwayeast]

In other news, Looks like all Boyne mountain lift ticket prices will be going up to cover this.