We've actually made snow top-to-bottom on Free Fall on The North Face!
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Mount Snow: Inside Track
- Thread starter MountSnow
- Start date
We've actually made snow top-to-bottom on Free Fall on The North Face!
ghughes20
Active member
Bummer if there are wind holds on day one!!!
machski
Well-known member
Yup, forecast I just heard is for super high winds Saturday.
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urungus
Well-known member
slatham
Well-known member
I think this opening day decision was extremely tough. Doesn’t seem to be much doubt they need to make some more snow, so the temp forecast Wed-Sat is obviously critical. But then there’s a pretty major Nor Easter coming. From this far out Saturday is a brutually hard forecast, especially in October! Nobody wants opening day to be a wind swept rain storm. And to make the call from today that it will be snow takes a set of brass balls. So if I find any fault in this - which given it’s still freakin October for god sakes is hard to find - is that they didn’t declare Friday opening day to have clear weather. But I have to give them credit for going for Saturday. Love to know who their weather guy is. I hope the Euro from 12z today is correct because if so it could be awesome. Whatever you do and whatever you think, THINK SNOW!!!!!
sull1102
Member
Exactly my point, how you don't open Friday with good weather I will never know.
chuckstah
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I planned to be there Friday. The weekend is a no go.
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ss20
Well-known member
I also wanted them to be open midweek as well. My guess is they just don't have labor up there yet. The turnover rate for unskilled labor like lifties is just as high as you'd imagine a minimum wage, seasonal, outdoor winter job to be....no visa workers and no new hires yet means slim pickings from the experienced staff, who have a lot to do to get the mountain running still I'm sure.
drjeff
Well-known member
My hunch is after looking at the forecast the next few days and looking at the melting in the base area the last 24hrs (and I'm guessing some similarly thin areas the last couple hundred yards of Canyon) they feel that they need the combined windows of time, including Friday night, to get enough down to make sure they can open
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They are blowing on Canyon...why would you need to download on the Bluebird? Canyon Express chair up, River Run to NF base, NF lifts to the top. Option to ski Free Fall on NF or come down the front on Cascade with option to head back down River Run or straight to the base on Canyon.
ss20
Well-known member
Because not enough snow could be blown on Canyon...it's gonna be close...weather keeps looking worse when it comes to snowmaking. Thursday night might be it for being able to blow at the base, even then output will be marginal.
It's times like there I wish the hill still had 20 or so "air hogs" that could blow if it were 30 degrees out. Just pump 'em full of air for a couple iffy nights. Sure it'd cost a lot of $$$ but it'd certainly clear up a lot of these opening questions.
Bostonian
Well-known member
The base as of 8:10 this morning. Took a beating but, if temps drop tonight hopefully they will recover.
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Agreed on the old air hogs guns, seems stupid that they got rid of all of them. They can put out nice wet base building type snow at upwards of 35 degrees with enough air. K still uses them for early season base building.
IceEidolon
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That temp stat is a little misleading since you need low low low wetbulbs to do it. Also, production volume goes down fast. The big advantage to big air isn't so much the 30+ degree option, but the 28 degree option to concentrate all on a couple trouble spots. A night at maximum workable temperature with a Ratnik, say, neither produces quality nor quantity suitable for opening.
That said, big air has its place - K hammering a small handful of trails, for instance, instead of spreading the same GPM over two or three times the area, or a 27 degree run with a handful of Rats to cover a path to the lift and fill low spots on the Opening Day route at the cost of air for a different trail.
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That said, big air has its place - K hammering a small handful of trails, for instance, instead of spreading the same GPM over two or three times the area, or a 27 degree run with a handful of Rats to cover a path to the lift and fill low spots on the Opening Day route at the cost of air for a different trail.
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I want to say it's Tony Vazzano: https://www.pressherald.com/2012/03/25/new-england-ski-areas-depend-on-savvy-weather-man_2012-03-25/
thebigo
Well-known member
When compared with the wildcat webcam this morning, it is hard to believe Snow will be first to open for Peak this year.
https://www.skiwildcat.com/web-cams/
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sull1102
Member
They won't be now. Wildcat is going to kick their ass this weekend by A LOTTTTTT. GOOD FOR THE CAT AND GOOD FOR NH!
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Newpylong
Well-known member
That is exactly how we use our K Guns. When you need a pile and you need it now, like within 12 hours. We also can operate a handful of them in warmer temps along with our fan guns when our HKD Vipers are no longer putting out anything worthwhile. Some mountains were smart and didn't trade in all the big air, it has its place.
That's the smart thing to do, being 100% Low E looks good in a marketing campaign but as we've seen in the last week or two you're at a serious disadvantage in warmer temps.
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