Go to Mount Snow this weekend, it sounds awesome. Killington = Fail.

[Highway Star]

Get after it:

https://www.mountsnow.com/our-media/blog/mount-snow/opening-this-saturday/

 

[tnt1234]

Wow - quite a few trails planned for Saturday.

 

[drjeff]

The new system is currently pumping 11800 gallons per minute (today apparently is the first day they've run all the new pumps in full on production conditions) to roughly 230 guns, that are producing about 5.1 acre feet/hour of snow, which is a "raise the bar" type figure in the snowmaking world!

 

[flakeydog]

Holy crap- that's a lot of production. 11.8k gallons/min equates to 708k gallons/hr. 5.1 acre-feet is about 222k cubic feet or 1.66M "gallons" of snow (assuming 7.48 gal/cu ft) makes for a pretty solid base at density of 0.42. Fluffy snow is 0.05-0.1 and ice comes in at 0.92 so this is about midway between powder and solid ice. If it is white and frozen, I will take it this time of year!

 

[slatham]

Wow. Am I right that even if Killington included Superstar as open terrain (which it isn't) that they'd still fall short of Mt Snow? The NE skiing world is upside down.

 

[drjeff]

Wow. Am I right that even if Killington included Superstar as open terrain (which it isn't) that they'd still fall short of Mt Snow? The NE skiing world is upside down.

In Killington's defense, if the amount of snow and resources they've put down on Superstar we're spread out among Snowdon to the base, and possibly down to Ramshead and Snowshed, K would by far and away give them the most acres open this weekend!!

It takes 3 to 5 FEET of snow on Superstar to get it ready for the world cup, and that's not "high efficiency" snow being made either.

I'm sure that probably in a few days, when K starts shifting a bunch of the capacity Superstar is using now, towards expansion for the public, their prowess in the snowmaking world will take over....

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[deadheadskier]

Maybe?

K is the pro in the East in terms of first to open, but I think other areas move faster in terms of early season expansion in recent years. I'll eat my words, but I'm willing to bet Okemo, Stratton, Sunday River and now possibly Snow will have more terrain open than Killington come December 1

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[andrec10]

In Killington's defense, if the amount of snow and resources they've put down on Superstar we're spread out among Snowdon to the base, and possibly down to Ramshead and Snowshed, K would by far and away give them the most acres open this weekend!!

It takes 3 to 5 FEET of snow on Superstar to get it ready for the world cup, and that's not "high efficiency" snow being made either.

I'm sure that probably in a few days, when K starts shifting a bunch of the capacity Superstar is using now, towards expansion for the public, their prowess in the snowmaking world will take over....

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This is very dense snow...really almost ice. Takes a lot of water. I don't think the air is the issue, I think water is the limiting factor.

 

[Zermatt]

This is very dense snow...really almost ice. Takes a lot of water. I don't think the air is the issue, I think water is the limiting factor.

I assume they are doing that on purpose right now? 16 degrees is certainly in the whale making range if they wanted it.

Killington always said that World Cup/Superstar operations would not interfere with normal operations. That clearly is not the case since they have only been fiddling with one trail at the top when they could easily have top to bottom skiing and many trails if they wanted to, and with the current forecast it is unlikely they will loses much before Thanksgiving.

They totally dropped the ball and could have had dozens of trails open for Thanksgiving as the best whale making weather is this weekend.

Impressive work at Mount Snow for sure.

 

[Cornhead]

Mt Snow was great today! We had planned on skiing K yesterday, but all bailed, good thing, it was brutal, no doubt. Mt Snow was chilly this morning, but conditions were great. One easy, one intermediate, and Freefall. Freefall was fun, all ungroomed whales. Oh, no walking required.

Snowbow

Freefall

8 runs, legs r toast, headed home, great first day of the 2017-2018 season, here's to many more.

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[Zermatt]

Killington's statement on why we screwed ticket holders:

http://www.killington.com/site/culture/blog/authors/mike_solimano/from-the-top-early-season-update

New line of thinking, the World Cup is so important to Killington and Vermont skiing as a whole that we used all our capacity to ensure the World Cup goes on as planned.

 

[Glenn]

Wow! Mt Snow is really delivering. Thanks for the pics.


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[Jully]

Killington's statement on why we screwed ticket holders:

http://www.killington.com/site/culture/blog/authors/mike_solimano/from-the-top-early-season-update

New line of thinking, the World Cup is so important to Killington and Vermont skiing as a whole that we used all our capacity to ensure the World Cup goes on as planned.

What K promised and has appeared to follow through on is that the World Cup doesn't impact North Ridge operations at all, if anything they've helped them be even more aggressive there in October.

The World Cup, most likely in the form of essentially a mandate from the FIS, does slow TTB expansion. I don't think it necessarily screws passholders other than the fact that they weren't fully transparent about this before.

Its a trade off. You get the same early early offering as always and other mountains come online around the time they would be going TTB anyways. K never aggressively went top to bottom anyhow. Then, after the WC you get expansion at a (probably) accelerated rate due to greater snowmaking capacity. Definitely not ideal, but I don't view it as Killington being horrible to its loyal passholders.

 

[Bostonian]

Snow was great today, Corn I wish I knew you were going to be there! I would have grabbed a beer toghter!

 

[Zermatt]

What K promised and has appeared to follow through on is that the World Cup doesn't impact North Ridge operations at all, if anything they've helped them be even more aggressive there in October.

The World Cup, most likely in the form of essentially a mandate from the FIS, does slow TTB expansion. I don't think it necessarily screws passholders other than the fact that they weren't fully transparent about this before.

Its a trade off. You get the same early early offering as always and other mountains come online around the time they would be going TTB anyways. K never aggressively went top to bottom anyhow. Then, after the WC you get expansion at a (probably) accelerated rate due to greater snowmaking capacity. Definitely not ideal, but I don't view it as Killington being horrible to its loyal passholders.

I’m not a pass holder and I don’t disagree with them. FIS is more important than pass holders who ski for dollars a day, truth hurts.

Glad they are disclosing it now though, and they probably were caught off guard by what amount Snow was able to do.

 

[drjeff]

I wonder how many K regulars will be complaining about the dense, more weather resistant, world cup base snow in May and hopefully June again when Superstar is the only lift served game in the East....

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[drjeff]

I’m not a pass holder and I don’t disagree with them. FIS is more important than pass holders who ski for dollars a day, truth hurts.

Glad they are disclosing it now though, and they probably were caught off guard by what amount Snow was able to do.

And frankly if Mount Snow's new system makes K decide to upgrade and expand their's, the entire ski industry and consumers will win.

When someone raises the bar, very often others not only follow, but raise the bar even higher!!

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[MEtoVTSkier]

I wonder how many K regulars will be complaining about the dense, more weather resistant, world cup base snow in May and hopefully June again when Superstar is the only lift served game in the East....

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Keep in mind, it's absolutely meaningless to those of us who don't ski so late in the spring...

 

[tumbler]

Also the temps came in very favorable for Mt Snow this year. Generally from K north will have snowmaking temps and south will be too warm. I think this year is the outlier for early season temps. Glad there is so much open for people to get after it.

 

[WWF-VT]

I wonder how many K regulars will be complaining about the dense, more weather resistant, world cup base snow in May and hopefully June again when Superstar is the only lift served game in the East....

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Most of them will find something to bitch about