Mount Snow Construction Update + Pics

[drjeff]

Took a long hike around the Mtn Sunday AM to check out all the construction Peaks is doing. The highlights:
- Snowdance - Polecats installed upto Somerset Road
- Canyon - Polecats installed on the entire lower section below the cross over from Lodge
- Stugger's Chute - Actively installing now, 3 Polecats at the bottom, footing sites dug all the way to the top
-Fairway - Polecats installed on the bottom roughly 1/2 of the trail
- Sweet 16 - "Recycled" air/water guns from now fan gun trails installed
- Drop - "recycled" air water guns installed
- A trailer of 30+ HKD Low Energy tower guns awaiting installation by the mid mountain pump house - this is many more of the Low E tower guns than I remember seeing around MS last season!

The pics:
http://good-times.webshots.com/album/560091768BXeAHc

 

[snowman]

Great pics! Thanks for sharing :grin:

 

[Highway Star]

Mt. Snow is playing to win......!!!

 

[Greg]

Pretty impressive:



Gonna be quite a sight when they fire those all up!

 

[drjeff]

The "little" thing that I just noticed on MS's website, is one of the lead banners now has the total costs of the improvements for this season upto 6.5million, when prior to this the numbers printed were just the 3.5ish million in snowmaking improvements.

Just from being up at the mountain recently, the entire vibe not just at the mountain, but in an around the entire Deerfield Valley is so much better than the last few years, even with the "failure" of the Haystack Club.

I wouldn't be suprised if via what I'd guess will be some aggressive marketing this winter by Peak Resorts and some in all likelyhood good word of mouth marketing that Mount Snow will be seeing its yearly skier visits going back above 500,000 and likely by quite a bit in the coming seasons.

The only thing I'm dreading is how long its going to take me hiking in another month or so when the remaining 50+ odd fan guns have been installed to get picks of them all

 

[Greg]

The "little" thing that I just noticed on MS's website, is one of the lead banners now has the total costs of the improvements for this season upto 6.5million, when prior to this the numbers printed were just the 3.5ish million in snowmaking improvements.

"$6 Million in improvement. The most fan guns in New England"



I, for one, am very excited about this season and Mount Snow's future. If it's hype, it's working on me!

 

[drjeff]

"$6 Million in improvement. The most fan guns in New England"



I, for one, am very excited about this season and Mount Snow's future. If it's hype, it's working on me!

I'm trying to keep relatively calm about what peak Resorts is doing, but every couple of weeks when I go upto my place there and walk around and literally see truckloads of brand spanking new Polecats still on palates and in shrink wrap just waiting for installation on top of what they've already done, it's getting real tough not to be grinning ear to ear!

 

[Greg]

I'm trying to keep relatively calm about what peak Resorts is doing, but every couple of weeks when I go upto my place there and walk around and literally see truckloads of brand spanking new Polecats still on palates and in shrink wrap just waiting for installation on top of what they've already done, it's getting real tough not to be grinning ear to ear!

That's really great for you as a property owner up there. I'm just an every now and then day tripper and I'm psyched. You must be elated. Congrats.

 

[snowman]

"$6 Million in improvement. The most fan guns in New England"



I, for one, am very excited about this season and Mount Snow's future. If it's hype, it's working on me!

"Hype" is when a resort says they're making a "signifigant" investment in snowguns this winter, and then when you show up to go skiing you count only 2 more snowguns than they had last season. Plastering a mountain with more big $ fan guns than you can keep track of is NOT hype

 

[drjeff]

"Hype" is when a resort says they're making a "signifigant" investment in snowguns this winter, and then when you show up to go skiing you count only 2 more snowguns than they had last season. Plastering a mountain with more big $ fan guns than you can keep track of is NOT hype

I'm expecting a MAJOR all out media blitz this season. The trick will be to get the folks to the mountain for the first time that haven't been there in a few seasons. Once you get them there and they see what's been done, and what a *hopefully* great product is on the hill(and last year once it got cold, the snowmakers at Mount Snow did a phenomenal job laying down some great snow), getting them back the the 2nd, 3rd, 4th and beyond visits will be easy.

The biggest potential hurdle I could forsee with getting the repeat customer asuming a cooperative mother nature, will the the potential long liftlines in the base area that more folks on the hill will inevitably bring. That will be fun to see how it will be addressed in the coming years! And as much as I enjoy snapping pics of new SMI products, I'm really looking forward to snapping pics of new either Dopplemayr/ CTEC or Leintner/Poma products being installed in the hopefully not to distant seasons

 

[snowman]

And as much as I enjoy snapping pics of new SMI products, I'm really looking forward to snapping pics of new either Dopplemayr/ CTEC or Leintner/Poma products being installed in the hopefully not to distant seasons

I'm not sure is I would hold my breath on that one. Peak seems to be all about breaking the bank on snowmaking and maintaining what a resort alreay has for lifts. When they install new lifts, more often than not they are "new to us" lifts, if you look at Crotched...... :???:

 

[Newpylong]

Thanks for the boatloads of great pictures. I haven't been up there since early summer when only a few of those were in the main lot. They have really done a lot...good to see the towers being re-used as well. I think next year is really going to be great, but the best is yet to come. Think somerset resevoir... Hopefully skier visits will level off next season, or even begin to rise. Couple that with unlimited water for forthcoming seasons, then you are going to see the new lifts installed to cooincide with expanded snowmaking terrain. According to the Q&A with the mountain, you're going to see a new lift in Sunbrook (once they get snowmaking on the Dippers) and one out of the main base area as well. Good times for Mount Snow... it's been a long time.


PS. Any clue what the digging/construction is there at the bottom of Stugger's in your photo?

 

[drjeff]

PS. Any clue what the digging/construction is there at the bottom of Stugger's in your photo?

Not quite sure, on one side, the poles going in look alot like the base footing poles that the polecats are going on, but the size of the footing they were mounted on was real big (close to 3 feet in diameter and 2 + feet deep), which was noticably larger than what the on-hill polecats are on. Plus they had 6 or 7 of them in a real small area that was atmost 20 feet square.

They did have a similar set up at the top of Launch Pad about a month ago where they had 4 or 5 footing poles set in a similarly small area, but when I looked over there this past weekend, they had pulled them up and a couple of those poles were just sitting on the ground with a big block of cement attached to the end of them.

I was trying to figure out of that area was going to be a location for a mountain map, or maybe mount a bunch of polecats there so that they could then push the snow made either over to the half pipe or over to the tubing area, but either of those options just really didn't make much sense to me since with where they're currently installing the polecats over there, just simply running a couple extra hundred feet of electrical line would enable them to have the polecat directly at the pipe and tubing area.

I'll be curious to see what's there when I head back up again in a few weeks.

 

[arik]

With all those fan guns we better hope they get the water to use them.
I feel tempted write a letter to someone in state government in support of the Somerset Reservoir project.

 

[Newpylong]

I know right. I don't know how much they are going to be utilized to their potential this year without the pipeline. Last season with their traditional air/water setup, a few days of full tilt snowmaking totally drained the Snow Lake pond and required mucho borrowing from Haystack.

 

[millerm277]

a few days of full tilt snowmaking totally drained the Snow Lake pond and required mucho borrowing from Haystack.

Well, it doesn't exactly look like Haystack is likely to be back this year, so I don't think they'll have a problem with Mt. Snow borrowing their water again.

 

[Newpylong]

This is true. The problem is, they regulate how much Mount Snow takes, and the amount there is limited as well. Last winter they sucked Snow Lake dry, took a considerable amount of water from the 'Stack and still had to stop snowmaking at times. Having the resevoir will mean this won't ever happen again : )