How much money was wasted?

[TwinTips21]

How much money did the major resorts waste with their snowmaking early in November which will just about all melt this week if it hasn't already? Will this affect their eagerness to make snow to open up for thanksgiving?

 

[ajl50]

Plenty. Maybe they were thinking that if they could just open up for one weekend they could offset the costs of all that early season snow making. Oops. Maybe Mother Nature will help them out with some good december snow and cold temps.

 

[andyzee]

Maybe some waste, but a lot of that snow is good for base building. In the case of Killington, I think they were actually smart with stick with upper elevations. This gives them less work in the coming week and a half to prepare for Tday. There was one TR on KZone where it was reported that there was still plenty of snow this past Friday.

 

[riverc0il]

i am sure kmart, stowe, jay, and bush retained a decent amount of the man made snow. it was a very good gamble. two weeks ago, most people on here were chomping at the bit and would have found it unacceptable if the resorts were not making snow. the major players were damned if they did and damned if they did not. while a warm up was in the cards, no one knew that we would be entering into a period of substantially above average temps and no additional chances to make snow for weeks after the guns got turned off. the waste of money will reinforce the trend that ski resorts are likely to err even more on the side of caution in the future.

but, could they have afforded to miss that window if this warm up only lasted a few days and miss opening up when the competition rolled the dice and it paid off?

 

[andyzee]

Some pics from KZone from yesterday, can be found here: http://www.killingtonzone.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=188433#188433 Nice shots of K, looks like SuperStar in May.

 

[TwinTips21]

With another warm week and a lot of rain I don't think much snow will remain. I saw okemo over the weekend and all they had left was a little patch at the summit.

 

[dmc]

Once again Hunter holds out and doesn't waste snowmaking...

 

[2knees]

i was howling when kmart didnt make top to bottom and i'll admit i was dead wrong. They made the right choice not to eat into their budget for a couple of early season days.

 

[loafer89]

The long range weather forecasts that I have seen indicate a warm stretch of weather for the next one week, with some cooling and snowmaking weather for Thanksgiving week. A strong pacific storm is forecast to enter the rockies region by November 25th. I think this storm will be the one that unleashes an Arctic outbreak for the week of November 27th once it moves through our region.

Fairbanks in currently at -11F which is well below normal, hopefully this air makes a southbound move soon.

 

[ajl50]

Also - if you look at the central canadian plains they are way below average. The extremly cold air is just sitting up there getting colder. I think that after this thursday we'll see a return to more normal/seasonal temps with snomaking conditions at night and mid 30 - mid 40's max highs for the days. After thanksgiving I think that loafer is right and the cold air (really cold air) will just funnel in. My only concern is that it will the cold air that has NO moisture with it...but cold and dry is better than warm and wet.

 

[stomachdoc]

Snowmaking ain't cheap. My contacts at Waterville tell me that it costs about $1000/hour to run the snowmaking system at full tilt. Electricity is more expensive in Vermont.

This is one business I'm glad I'm not in......4 months to make a living, totally dependent on weather......

Looks like noone will hit their mark for opening next weekend (except maybe the most Northern places) but then it gets cold; I think that Thanksgiving is a reasonable expectation for the bigger resorts.

 

[thetrailboss]

$1000 per hour are consistent with what I have been hearing as well....for Sugarbush.

 

[ajl50]

That's nuts. That means for every season pass they get 30 minutes of snowmaking...wow-I guess for all I hate to see warm temps the owners of a resort really hate to see warm temps. Hopefully they pack the bank full in the winters they don't need to turn on the guns.

 

[thetrailboss]

That's nuts. That means for every season pass they get 30 minutes of snowmaking...wow-I guess for all I hate to see warm temps the owners of a resort really hate to see warm temps. Hopefully they pack the bank full in the winters they don't need to turn on the guns.

It's a Catch-22. Spend that much, or don't and risk having no business at all.

 

[Big Game]

i was howling when kmart didnt make top to bottom and i'll admit i was dead wrong. They made the right choice not to eat into their budget for a couple of early season days.

Mea culpa.

You know, usually the person who has to pay the bill is right.