Snow making

[Jisch]

Ignorance..

Apologies for my ignorance, but how do mountains "resurface" a trail when its all ice? I know putting 3" of snow on top of ice probably doesn't do much after the first hour of skiing, especially if it's crowded. Just curious...

John

 

[DiMe]

Apologies for my ignorance, but how do mountains "resurface" a trail when its all ice? I know putting 3" of snow on top of ice probably doesn't do much after the first hour of skiing, especially if it's crowded. Just curious...

John

It does make a big difference anything on top of smooth ice gives your edges a bit more to grip onto. When it gets scraped off the center you just gotta ride down the soft stuff on the sides:-D

 

[Newpylong]

WOW, I have never seen them have that many on-line at once....

Here's what Mount Snow looked like from my deck around 10PM Friday night. The only lights that aren't fan guns are the really bright ones in the middle which was 3 cats working Upper Exhibition/Lodge. Also, this doesn't show the fan gun lights that are running on Nitro and Lower Titanium over at Carinthia. Seriously, this is the most number of fan guns lights that I've seen Mount Snow running at once! Impressive!

 

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

Blue mountain blew snow on about 7 trails..with marginal snowmaking temperatures in the mid 20s..

 

[drjeff]

That is a man made snow storm. It looks like there are about 70 guns going in tha pic. Do they also have other ones going without lights on them?

Probably over 100 going last night, and yes off to the left of the pic they had all the fan guns on Nitro and Lower Titanium lit up No air/water, non lighted guns going per what I saw on the hill today

Apologies for my ignorance, but how do mountains "resurface" a trail when its all ice? I know putting 3" of snow on top of ice probably doesn't do much after the first hour of skiing, especially if it's crowded. Just curious...

John

Many times a resurface can happen 1 of 2 ways. #1, the obvious one, blow a significant amount of snow over the old surface or #2, literally with the cats "take apart" the refrozen stuff, and I'm not just talking about running the machine groomer over the frozen stuff, but with the blade, dig down 12"+ mixing the deeper (and presumably drier) snow with the undersirable stuff on the top, and then after the mixing has occurred, then hit it with the machine groomer to get a resurfaced, surface. From the vantage point I have at Mount Snow, I'll regularly see a bunch of groomers doing this take apart/put together to the major runs.

FYI, the stuff that Mount Snow was making last night/today was slightly thicker/denser than the output that the fan guns will make other times. This "stiffer" snow still skied great, and definately held up better to todays traffic than the super dry fluff would have

WOW, I have never seen them have that many on-line at once....

Last night was an IMPRESSIVE show of firepower, even my wife was commenting that she had never seen that much of the mountain all lit up at once. I was hoping to run into Kelly Pawlak or Dave Moulton today to find out if they set a personal record of fan guns at once last night, but no such luck

 

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

props to Mount Snow..gorgonzola is up there..

 

[Newpylong]

Jeff judging from the Web Cam they must have ran the air / water guns on Upper Canyon...trees were covered.

 

[tjf67]

Apologies for my ignorance, but how do mountains "resurface" a trail when its all ice? I know putting 3" of snow on top of ice probably doesn't do much after the first hour of skiing, especially if it's crowded. Just curious...

Not only does it cover the ice but it sticks to it and starts to bond. Then the groomers come through and finish the process. All that goes out the window when there are 20 mile an hour winds, BTW Wind stopped at WF at about 1 today. Bluebird snow getting better by the hour. Guns are blsting

 

[billski]

If your making snow for a resurface your wasting valuable resource. Areas need to learn to maintain piste thourgh grooming. I can see making snow to increase base depths or cover areas were not enough snow was made. Hats of to Mt. Snow with the show blowin. Grooming and maintaining your piste is alot cheaper than making snow for just resurfacing.

Again what? I'm a skier not an operator. From my point of view, what you say is that we only should expect munged up frozen granular? No hope for PP unless it's natural?
:uzi:
harumph!

 

[billski]

It does make a big difference anything on top of smooth ice gives your edges a bit more to grip onto. When it gets scraped off the center you just gotta ride down the soft stuff on the sides:-D

what about with a little mix-in a-la Steve's ice cream or Julia Child's Crem d'brule?

 

[mountainman]

Can be better.

Again what? I'm a skier not an operator. From my point of view, what you say is that we only should expect munged up frozen granular? No hope for PP unless it's natural?
:uzi:
harumph!

No it might not be fresh snow pack powder, but it can be a skiabel and rideable surface without frozen boiler plate underneath. Their is a technique that many areas do not use.. In fact 98% of areas now today just rely on powertillers for groomng.When and how they are used is very important in certain weather conditions. Most areas don't take the time to produce a better surface thourgh grooming. Just depend on snow making to resurface when grooming no longer is efficent. Yes their are some areas that do rip it up with blades. Dozing and pushing to make their surface yes it is better than some. This is a time comsuming process, but i agree it does help, but the acreage coverage is time consuming.

Better efficient Snowmaking and Grooming.
Notice a lot of Ice Pack surface and Hard Pack surface as primary ski surface during the ski season? These types of surfaces may like nice when they are groomed at night, but are skied away by skier traffic by mid-day.

Does your area have to make more snow to re-surface piste?
What type of grooming techniques is used for grooming piste does your area use?
Implements used?
Tractors used at your area?
Acreage coverage and fuel cost per acre?
Grooming plans for different weather conditions?

 

[highpeaksdrifter]

I'll take my mountain with actual character over Whiteface, thank you very much.

Probably the most overused descriptivism in this forum. MRG has character and no other mountain does? It builds character and nowhere else does? Bullcrap.

 

[highpeaksdrifter]

Here's what Mount Snow looked like from my deck around 10PM Friday night. The only lights that aren't fan guns are the really bright ones in the middle which was 3 cats working Upper Exhibition/Lodge. Also, this doesn't show the fan gun lights that are running on Nitro and Lower Titanium over at Carinthia. Seriously, this is the most number of fan guns lights that I've seen Mount Snow running at once! Impressive!

Commitment to excellence, that is impressive.

 

[drjeff]

Jeff judging from the Web Cam they must have ran the air / water guns on Upper Canyon...trees were covered.

I'm pretty sure that was just natural rime from the snow that fell and was wind driven as the front passed Friday AM - see a pic in my TR of my wife on Plummet for another example of how the trees looked very new U.C.

 

[RootDKJ]

Windham probably had 20-25 guns going today.

 

[tjf67]

Whiteface has been running a lot of guns(75+) 24/7 the last couple of days.

 

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

Blue blew snow 2 nights in a row and tonight looks good as well..good recovery..