Killllington 🎿🏂🏂🎿🎿🏂🏂🎿😀

[thebigo]

No pictures but thought last Sunday was better than today. Dust on crust today, too many damn people. Looking forward to Tuesday at SR.

 

[doublediamond]

Winching Rime?

Right now on the cam there’s a strobe on part way down Rime and there’s a cat down below the strobe? Are they winching Rime? I didn’t think it was steep enough to need to be winched?

I’ve tried to take a screenshot of the cam but I keep getting it in the “off” phase of the strobe.

 

[RH29]

17 degrees at K1 base and looking at the peak and Mountain View webcams, I don't see a single gun running on the entire Snowdon/North Ridge side of the mountain. Something is up.

 

[kingslug]

What kind did you get slug? I just got some Dynastar M-Free 108s

J skis....got em for 300.00

 

[ALLSKIING]

17 degrees at K1 base and looking at the peak and Mountain View webcams, I don't see a single gun running on the entire Snowdon/North Ridge side of the mountain. Something is up.

Seems like everything they have is over on SS AND Skylark. Short window to get it down before the warm up.

 

[RH29]

Seems like everything they have is over on SS AND Skylark. Short window to get it down before the warm up.

A resort as big as Killington is only able to blow on two trails at a time in one trail pod, and that's it? I wonder what happened to the "WC won't affect trail rollout" line. They should be open TTB on Snowdon and GN by Wednesday, yet they left the guns off on a night in the low teens.

 

[Keelhauled]

I wonder what happened to the "WC won't affect trail rollout" line.

When was the last time they said that? I don't think it lasted much longer than the first Cup season or two. I'm sure it was the intention, but best laid plans, Mother Nature bats last, etc, etc.

Probably their analysis (and it seems hard to argue) is that the publicity and the 10k+ people in their driveway for the weekend is worth nore than a couple hundred skiers for whom top to bottom makes a difference, so that's where their priority lies. Seems like that's probably just the way it is long as they host the race.

 

[machski]

A resort as big as Killington is only able to blow on two trails at a time in one trail pod, and that's it? I wonder what happened to the "WC won't affect trail rollout" line. They should be open TTB on Snowdon and GN by Wednesday, yet they left the guns off on a night in the low teens.

It doesn't affect public opening date on NR, but it surely affects how fast they can expand.

 

[machski]

Seems like everything they have is over on SS AND Skylark. Short window to get it down before the warm up.

From the Cam angles, yes. But according to the run report, the route down from NR through Snowdon is currently getting snowmaking. Most of that isn't captured well by the cams.

 

[Newpylong]

The report is wrong, there's nothing going on any of those trails.

 

[skiur]

From the Cam angles, yes. But according to the run report, the route down from NR through Snowdon is currently getting snowmaking. Most of that isn't captured well by the cams.

There were a total of 4 guns going on the run down from NR yesterday. Not very beastly.

 

[Newpylong]

I wouldn't be surprised if they are moving nearly every drop of water available out of both sides into those two trails currently while it is this cold. SS has hydrants literally every 15 feet in spots. There are over a 100, so even if you assume 80 of them are online and multiply by 60 GPM as a baseline that's 4800 GPM, now add on Skye Park T2B. That's all she wrote for what they can pump.

 

[drjeff]

I wouldn't be surprised if they are moving nearly every drop of water available out of both sides into those two trails currently while it is this cold. SS has hydrants literally every 15 feet in spots. There are over a 100, so even if you assume 80 of them are online and multiply by 60 GPM as a baseline that's 4800 GPM, now add on Skye Park T2B. That's all she wrote for what they can pump.

How long do you think it will be until K makes a SUBSTANTIAL upgrade to their pumping capacity?

Their once superior status when it comes to capacity has certainly changed, as numerous other resorts can now pump as much, if not more than K can, and with the trend in the industry over the last say decade or so where low e has become the standard, the ability to pump more water has become more important under the vast majority of situations than how much air can be sent up the hill.

My hunch is for K to once again rise to the undisputed snowmaking power in the East, that they're going to have to get their pumping capacity somewhere in the 15k gallons a minute (or more) which is going to require a BIG investment in their water delivery mechanisms, and a bunch of core feeder pipe to deliver that much water to their core valve houses that supply their various snowmaking loops around their terrain

 

[ss20]

How long do you think it will be until K makes a SUBSTANTIAL upgrade to their pumping capacity?

Their once superior status when it comes to capacity has certainly changed, as numerous other resorts can now pump as much, if not more than K can, and with the trend in the industry over the last say decade or so where low e has become the standard, the ability to pump more water has become more important under the vast majority of situations than how much air can be sent up the hill.

My hunch is for K to once again rise to the undisputed snowmaking power in the East, that they're going to have to get their pumping capacity somewhere in the 15k gallons a minute (or more) which is going to require a BIG investment in their water delivery mechanisms, and a bunch of core feeder pipe to deliver that much water to their core valve houses that supply their various snowmaking loops around their terrain

Pumping capacity means nothing at the moment... their efficiency loss is in 40 years of pieced together infrastructure. It's a lot of old pipe and the overall system was designed to move more air than water as that was the limiting factor at the time. And it's massively labor intensive with a huge reliance on movable guns. If they doubled pumping capacity without fixing anything else it would mean next to nothing.

My armchair plan would be adding a few hundred fan guns with onboard air on critical trails to cut down on labor costs... Snowshed slope, Supe, Cruise control, Needle's, Skyeburst, heck OL would be awesome with fans. Then start replacing pipe.... and replace, replace, replace.

 

[Great Bear]

The report is wrong, there's nothing going on any of those trails.

That is pretty disappointing to hear.

 

[kingslug]

Huge job..and a must. Can't run big new pumps without new piping. I used to run systems like this..you quickly find the weak points in the system.

 

[Newpylong]

Pumping capacity means nothing at the moment... their efficiency loss is in 40 years of pieced together infrastructure. It's a lot of old pipe and the overall system was designed to move more air than water as that was the limiting factor at the time. And it's massively labor intensive with a huge reliance on movable guns. If they doubled pumping capacity without fixing anything else it would mean next to nothing.

My armchair plan would be adding a few hundred fan guns with onboard air on critical trails to cut down on labor costs... Snowshed slope, Supe, Cruise control, Needle's, Skyeburst, heck OL would be awesome with fans. Then start replacing pipe.... and replace, replace, replace.

The fans would likely work well in those locations but for a place with an already mature air plant the cost of running that much 3 PH would likely not be a good ROI. I think they would be better served replacing what is already there with automated Klik systems in most of those locations. Then they could re-distribute any of the non-Impulse equipment that is being replaced to other areas with needs. At least this year they have shown they are willing to supplant the Rats and K guns with HKD sleds as appropriate. IMHO that is the most effective method for them to reduce early season air reliance and maximize water utilization.

But yes, serious work is required on all aspects of the water distribution system. Yes they can route around problem areas but this comes at the sacrifice of capacity and efficiency as none of those feeds are really sized appropriately to move the volume of water needed to stay in the big leagues. When places like Mount Snow and Sunday River have 24" and 20" feeds that down feed everything, that is hard to compete with. If either of those places had the geography advantage that K has, it would be game over. K makes up for it in elevation and brute strength and the latter is becoming a detriment with the demands of the World Cup on that system.

 

[Smellytele]

I was there today and they did have some guns going on Snowdon. Maybe on Lower GN.

 

[IceEidolon]

For perspective, 15k GPM would put them barely beating Blue Mtn PA - albeit with the weather to deliver full capacity more often.

I agree with Klik. Heck, if I were making the calls I'd look really closely at Skylark for Impulse R8 + Klik or Manual Klik, both to make marginal temp short window snowmaking better and to make the mid season stockpiling easier. But when it's not your money that's very easy to say.

 

[RH29]

I'm getting the itch. Might try to sneak up to Killington next Wednesday, and $70 lift tickets look like a bargain these days. If they've got two TTB on Snowdon as well as Great Northern or something on Ramshead (maybe even Skyelark? I can dream.), I'll probably go for it.