Berkshire East & Catamount: 3 New Lifts, Terrain Expansions

[urungus]

Unfortunate to hear about the lift troubles at Berkshire East on Sunday, I’ve been there 15 times so far this season and have not noticed a huge increase in crowds. As long as they are able to resolve the mechanical issues with the backup summit triple, I would not expect crowding to be an issue next Saturday. Was there this afternoon, a holiday and a powder day, and it was ski on. I posted a trip report with some photos, not a person to be seen: https://forums.alpinezone.com/threads/2022-01-17-berkshire-east-powder-day.143546/

 

[Pez]

Still long, all they had were the triple and the quad to the top. the other quad on exhibition was not runnning.

it was a beautiful day and a holiday.

 

[skimagic]

I was at BE today, the quad acted up around noon so they would let a chair run empty at times. then it broke down an hour later for 20 minutes or so , then ran at 1/8 speed to unload it while the triple was warmed up.

on a related note, the Killington zone post had a subsequent comment about how catamounts new snowmaking system was installed undersized and now needs major work. any truth to that from those with snowmaking knowledge?

 

[urungus]

I was at BE today, the quad acted up around noon so they would let a chair run empty at times. then it broke down an hour later for 20 minutes or so , then ran at 1/8 speed to unload it while the triple was warmed up.

on a related note, the Killington zone post had a subsequent comment about how catamounts new snowmaking system was installed undersized and now needs major work. any truth to that from those with snowmaking knowledge?

was the new snow still soft today or did it freeze into ice overnight ?

 

[Pez]

I was at BE today, the quad acted up around noon so they would let a chair run empty at times. then it broke down an hour later for 20 minutes or so , then ran at 1/8 speed to unload it while the triple was warmed up.

on a related note, the Killington zone post had a subsequent comment about how catamounts new snowmaking system was installed undersized and now needs major work. any truth to that from those with snowmaking knowledge?

ya me too. I was stuck at the top where the wind rips through the opening in the trees.

overall fun day

 

[skimagic]

was the new snow still soft today or did it freeze into ice overnight ?

ungroomed froze up to barely pliable chunks. the groomed was nice though . no ice.

 

[camberstick]

We were hoping to do the beast for the 1st time sunday, maybe not the best time to check it out?

 

[skimagic]

We were hoping to do the beast for the 1st time sunday, maybe not the best time to check it out?

it's supposed to be high 30s tomorrow so they will probably groom more out after that to set the base up for the weekend. About 60% was groomed out today.

 

[IceEidolon]

on a related note, the Killington zone post had a subsequent comment about how catamounts new snowmaking system was installed undersized and now needs major work. any truth to that from those with snowmaking knowledge?

I don't know Catamount in particular but it'd certainly be possible to undersize a pipe and lose pressure and flow upstream, especially if the guys calling the shots weren't familiar with the as-built system, especially if they were trying to rub three nickels together to make two dimes. Likewise on the ball valves - depending on where they were installed (as hydrants, as drains, as system isolation valves) it's varying degrees of bad and cheap. Heck, from the limited information we have they may have put air hydrants on the water main and vice versa.

Catamount's general ops concept - add low energy towers and modern fan guns to replace their older gear - is sound. The implementation... Maybe they're moving too fast and making mistakes, maybe they're cheaping out, maybe they need a different snowmaking project lead or to listen to their existing one. Can't tell from here, but something's not going 100% rght. Compare Timberline WV for snowmaking overhaul done right and in a hurry.

 

[xlr8r]

Based on the Cams it looks like the Summit Quad is still down.

 

[camberstick]

Hopefully that quad comes back on line for the weekend or I might have to switch things up. Was going to split the weekend at beast and catamount on my indy pass.

 

[Newpylong]

I don't know Catamount in particular but it'd certainly be possible to undersize a pipe and lose pressure and flow upstream, especially if the guys calling the shots weren't familiar with the as-built system, especially if they were trying to rub three nickels together to make two dimes. Likewise on the ball valves - depending on where they were installed (as hydrants, as drains, as system isolation valves) it's varying degrees of bad and cheap. Heck, from the limited information we have they may have put air hydrants on the water main and vice versa.

Catamount's general ops concept - add low energy towers and modern fan guns to replace their older gear - is sound. The implementation... Maybe they're moving too fast and making mistakes, maybe they're cheaping out, maybe they need a different snowmaking project lead or to listen to their existing one. Can't tell from here, but something's not going 100% rght. Compare Timberline WV for snowmaking overhaul done right and in a hurry.

I posted this to K-Zone. So there are 1.5" standpipes (no drains), a 1.5" to 1" elbow on top, then (1"!) ball valves, then another 1 to 1.5"adapers and the camlock threaded in that. It's just bad anyway you look at it.

Too bad they are repeating past mistakes there and spending good money after bad. They had to call in outside help to get the system going again and my friend was one of them. Absolutely disgusting, the worst system he's ever seen. Much of that new pipe they put in is undersized so that they only get like 40 PSI on the NY side at the top so naturally sh*t freezes. They use ball valves for water. Can't make it up.

Instead of cutting 5 new trails all of which received snowmaking they should have been put their house in order first.

Not an overly impressive handling of Catamount so far by the Schaeffers.

 

[IceEidolon]

They put that in new, on purpose?!

I've seen a couple places with really old infrastructure that had 1" standpipes to (very torched) gate or ball valves for water in a few places, but that's all pre low energy - possibly older than fan guns, when Larchmonts with 1" couplers and banded rubber hose was high tech. What the fuck.

Could you tell if it was cheap stupid or ignorant stupid?

 

[urungus]

Sweet corduroy on the Berkshire East Summit Quad offramp this afternoon, a rare chance to send it directly off the top of the lift

 

[urungus]

They finally got the summit Quad running at about 4pm. I clocked wait time of 4 minutes for summit Triple between 2pm - 4pm, not too bad

 

[urungus]

Chilled out for a bit on Roy’s Way, nobody came by for 10 minutes. Upper Mohawk remains inexplicably closed, so only way to get there is to take Bear Tracks



Nice sunset today too

 

[Newpylong]

They put that in new, on purpose?!

I've seen a couple places with really old infrastructure that had 1" standpipes to (very torched) gate or ball valves for water in a few places, but that's all pre low energy - possibly older than fan guns, when Larchmonts with 1" couplers and banded rubber hose was high tech. What the fuck.

Could you tell if it was cheap stupid or ignorant stupid?

Behold. On new epoxy jacketed pipe. Look at that abomination.

They were trying to run Baby X-2s and K2000s with 40 psi with that. You can't throttle water with a ball valve for those lol.

 

[IceEidolon]

For anyone not in the know, that's almost as bad as a train car manufacturer building a plant and putting in narrow guage rails by accident, or a premium alcohol store buying and renovating a location in a dry county to move to and only discovering it's illegal on opening day.

 

[Tin]

Chilled out for a bit on Roy’s Way, nobody came by for 10 minutes. Upper Mohawk remains inexplicably closed, so only way to get there is to take Bear Tracks

View attachment 52785

Nice sunset today too
View attachment 52786

Was pretty fantastic once the natural stuff softened up around 2pm. You could really rip the ungroomed side of Flying Cloud. Jug, Liftline, East Glade, Horace's Grove, and some unmarked woods were pretty great as well. Bumps on Chief are filling in. Lows 40s and able to ski good coverage in a hoodie is a great day.

 

[thetrailboss]

A MESSAGE FROM JON SCHAEFER

STATUS UPDATES Hi all. Jon Schaefer here. I run Berkshire East and Catamount. My family has owned Berkshire East since 1976, and Catamount since 2018. When we bought Catamount in 2018, we committed to revitalizing it and haven't stopped. Admittedly, these improvements haven't been easy, and...

berkshireeast.com