Excuse me for not piping in on this conversation as I've been on the mountain quite a bit and didn't check back in after we posted this Wednesday.
So Noonan and Vinnie are correct in that we couldn't house a 22' pipe in the current location nor is the Dew Tour looking for that size of a pipe .... yet. Don't know what the future holds but the Dew Tour unlike the XGames is very much in the marketing of parks and pipes that are open to the public after they leave.
Pretty much our slopestyle and superpipe stayed the same after they left and they again will this year with minor tweaks to the slopestyle course to make sure it is safe (we fill in snow along the very straight edges of the jumps).
Our Zaugg is set to an 18' wall pipe. I spent two hours with Elia in a cat while he was working on the pipe after XMAS and learned quite a bit about the pipe and our location. We don't have the pitch necessary for a 22' pipe there or the space. The Zaugg would need one more extension on it, we wouldn't need to purchase a whole new machine.
The mini-pipe and Inferno are next on the plans for Carinthia as we get ready for the Revolution Tour in a few weeks and the Dew Tour in a month.
While some might think that the water/snowmaking thrown at the pipe should be utilized on say the North Face it's on a totally different water system and couldn't be piped over there to make snow. Just the way our snowmaking systems work here. Currently snowmaking is hammering away at Ripcord, Plummet and the huge South Bowl up top.
One of the reasons too that we concentrated so much on the pipe was that we decided before going into the holiday that Mine Shaft & Inferno would stay open as ski trails and not undergo builds during the week. Inferno is a sweet trail to ski without features if I may say so...
While skiing or riding the pipe is an art form for a minority of those skiing and riding today, our pipe is a signature piece at Carinthia. It sits in front of our base lodge, it provides guests enjoyment while having lunch, and it is one of only a handful on the east coast and currently the only one open. It does provide good PR but it is not a "stunt" the opening of our pipe was picked up from the local Brattleboro Reformer to Freeskier Magazine to ESPN.
I'm not going to complain about that, but the real focus was that we were determined to have a pipe open for the holiday week and also one open before the Dew Tour. If we waited it wouldn't have opened until after the WDT in February. Way to late by our standards. Now after the Tour the pipe will be solid and ready to roll for the entire season without a rebuild.
FYI - Tomorrow the only trail slated not to open - Ripcord (which should open up on Monday.) I couldn't be happier with the product on the mountain right now and the snowmaking operations that we've done so far and it's only January.
Happy New Year.
:beer:
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