Given how many of you have questioned our decisions regarding Mountain Operations choices we thought it best to see if we might be able to explain some of our thinking.
- First off we’d like to address the following rumor, Mount Snow has not fully expended our Snowmaking Budget for the 2017-18 winter season. It should be clear that after the difficult snow year in 2015-16 that we are willing to go beyond our budget to provide the best possible product to our guests. That said, Mount Snow also has a responsibility as a company to operate as fiscally responsible as possible. And with 80+ days of the season still ahead of us, we need to make sure we are managing our expenses so we can continue to provide a great product for the remainder of the season.
- Secondly, with weather, there are far more things to take into consideration than just temperature, wind for example is a major one. Firing up the system on a day like Tuesday or Wednesday with 45+mph winds would make more snow on the tops of trees than on the trail. It is hard to resurface in these conditions and be efficient. It can also be too cold to resurface. Why too cold? When temperatures drop to single digits or negatives, to keep guns from freezing up we would have to be pumping out a lot of water to each gun, more than for a typical resurface, this means more energy to keep the system operating and a lot of grooming to keep up. This means MOGULS everywhere! Resurface temps in the high teens and low 20’s allow Mount Snow to run a lot of guns on a lot of trails to get a quick resurface. Much of what we expect to accomplish on Friday.
- Midweek vs. weekend. This really is a question of when it’s best to make snow for all of our guests. This week, making snow on Friday will help us provide a great product for skiers this weekend. Next week, we’ll be making snow during the midweek, so midweek skiers may benefit. When evaluating when to make snow, we consider how well the trails will hold up and ski under the forecasted skier and rider traffic.
Decisions are made with the best intel available at the time. The weather often changes and we have to live with decisions. There are a group of five or more in Mountain Operations looking at all the variables and getting together to offer opinions. We think we have some of the best in the business on this team, and we think we make good decisions most of the time.
- First off we’d like to address the following rumor, Mount Snow has not fully expended our Snowmaking Budget for the 2017-18 winter season. It should be clear that after the difficult snow year in 2015-16 that we are willing to go beyond our budget to provide the best possible product to our guests. That said, Mount Snow also has a responsibility as a company to operate as fiscally responsible as possible. And with 80+ days of the season still ahead of us, we need to make sure we are managing our expenses so we can continue to provide a great product for the remainder of the season.
- Secondly, with weather, there are far more things to take into consideration than just temperature, wind for example is a major one. Firing up the system on a day like Tuesday or Wednesday with 45+mph winds would make more snow on the tops of trees than on the trail. It is hard to resurface in these conditions and be efficient. It can also be too cold to resurface. Why too cold? When temperatures drop to single digits or negatives, to keep guns from freezing up we would have to be pumping out a lot of water to each gun, more than for a typical resurface, this means more energy to keep the system operating and a lot of grooming to keep up. This means MOGULS everywhere! Resurface temps in the high teens and low 20’s allow Mount Snow to run a lot of guns on a lot of trails to get a quick resurface. Much of what we expect to accomplish on Friday.
- Midweek vs. weekend. This really is a question of when it’s best to make snow for all of our guests. This week, making snow on Friday will help us provide a great product for skiers this weekend. Next week, we’ll be making snow during the midweek, so midweek skiers may benefit. When evaluating when to make snow, we consider how well the trails will hold up and ski under the forecasted skier and rider traffic.
Decisions are made with the best intel available at the time. The weather often changes and we have to live with decisions. There are a group of five or more in Mountain Operations looking at all the variables and getting together to offer opinions. We think we have some of the best in the business on this team, and we think we make good decisions most of the time.
