The "Sugarbush Thread"

[tumbler]

Mediocre snowmaking temps and no snow forecast upcoming after this warm up. Bummer.

 

[Castlerockrisk]

The last two days of warm weather, mist and rain has eaten into the trail layer pretty severely. In quite a few spots we are down to the last few inches of boiler plate and some brown and dirt spots showing. I was pretty surprised how much we lost between yesterday and today vs Monday. The winter has yet to set in.

 

[oldfartrider]

Looks like snowmaking weather starting Thursday night?

 

[tumbler]

More like Monday/Tuesday. Don't get a lot of production in the upper 20's. Is the golf course open?

 

[Lotso]

Looks good at 2800', according to NOAA. Round the clock for next week. Should get things patched up and then get more terrain open, and freeze the bare ground which helps once you start tossing snow on it.

Tonight
Partly cloudy, with a low around 17. Wind chill values as low as zero. Windy, with a north wind 25 to 29 mph.
Friday
Sunny, with a high near 26. Wind chill values as low as -2. Windy, with a north wind 23 to 28 mph.
Friday Night
Mostly clear, with a low around 18. Blustery, with a northeast wind 15 to 20 mph decreasing to 9 to 14 mph after midnight.
Saturday
Sunny, with a high near 26. East wind 6 to 8 mph.
Saturday Night
Mostly cloudy, with a low around 21. South wind 8 to 10 mph.
Sunday
Cloudy, with a high near 25. Southeast wind 3 to 7 mph.
Sunday Night
A 30 percent chance of snow showers before 1am. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 20. Light and variable wind becoming north 6 to 11 mph after midnight.
Monday
Mostly sunny, with a high near 22. North wind 16 to 18 mph.
Monday Night
Partly cloudy, with a low around 17. Blustery, with a north wind around 21 mph.
Tuesday
Mostly sunny, with a high near 22. Blustery, with a northwest wind 21 to 24 mph.
Tuesday Night
Partly cloudy, with a low around 17. Windy, with a north wind 23 to 28 mph.
Wednesday
Partly sunny, with a high near 26. Blustery, with a northeast wind 15 to 20 mph decreasing to 8 to 13 mph in the afternoon.

 

[slatham]

Pretty consistent cold temps at 925mb/2,500’ assures at least night time snowmaking and likely round the clock up high starting tonight. Late next week trending better. In fact if this finally comes together last nights cold front is the start……

 

[Blurski]

Did anyone notice if the left the hoses on Snowball, Spring Fling & Pushover or are they all up on Jester & Downspout? Maybe part of the $7m included more hoses so they can leave some in place to facilitate a quicker response to resurfacing & moving around, seems like a lot of time is spent moving hoses around at least in the past. I don't know what they cost but a 2.5"x 100' DBL jacket 800psi fire hose costs about $500/ea, 2/gun x 100 guns = $100k. I have no idea if all the hoses are standardized or how long them need to be.

 

[Hawk]

The Sugar Bash is the weekend with the Grift. Good times for sure. But it is 6 to 9. Geeze the sidewalks rollup earlier and earlier. What are we going to do with the rest of the night? I'd be willing to chip in to get the Grift to stay another hour. WFT LOL

 

[IceEidolon]

Did anyone notice if the left the hoses on Snowball, Spring Fling & Pushover or are they all up on Jester & Downspout? Maybe part of the $7m included more hoses so they can leave some in place to facilitate a quicker response to resurfacing & moving around, seems like a lot of time is spent moving hoses around at least in the past. I don't know what they cost but a 2.5"x 100' DBL jacket 800psi fire hose costs about $500/ea, 2/gun x 100 guns = $100k. I have no idea if all the hoses are standardized or how long them need to be.

Offhand it's more like 2x 25' or 2x 50' 1.5" or 2" - I'd ballpark $200 - $400 per gun. Still a significant number.

If you let hoses get buried by leaving them attached through natural snow you can create just as much work as moving them from trail to trail. Not that that's much of a concern in a typical Northeast early season...

 

[slatham]

Offhand it's more like 2x 25' or 2x 50' 1.5" or 2" - I'd ballpark $200 - $400 per gun. Still a significant number.

If you let hoses get buried by leaving them attached through natural snow you can create just as much work as moving them from trail to trail. Not that that's much of a concern in a typical Northeast early season...

Done properly you hang the hoses on the tower base so they are easy to find and ready to go when next needed.

 

[Newpylong]

Isn't Pushover Klik now? If so that's a moot point. Spring Fling and Snowball have towers, so yeah the hoses should be blown out, reattached to the gun and left draped somewhere visible until snowmaking season is over then brought inside for the off season. Some places just leave them outside all the time. Better of the longevity of the hose if you can haul em in though. Not sure what SB's current practice is there. Maybe they do haul hose around from fixed gear to fixed gear.

 

[IceEidolon]

I don't care if you can find one end if skiers have compacted snow over the other end - I'd rather drag hoses than dig for hoses.

 

[cdskier]

Isn't Pushover Klik now? If so that's a moot point. Spring Fling and Snowball have towers, so yeah the hoses should be blown out, reattached to the gun and left draped somewhere visible until snowmaking season is over then brought inside for the off season. Some places just leave them outside all the time. Better of the longevity of the hose if you can haul em in though. Not sure what SB's current practice is there. Maybe they do haul hose around from fixed gear to fixed gear.

Yea...Pushover should be Klik now.

Generally speaking though SB does a lot of hauling of hoses around the mountain.

 

[djd66]

Isn't Pushover Klik now? If so that's a moot point. Spring Fling and Snowball have towers, so yeah the hoses should be blown out, reattached to the gun and left draped somewhere visible until snowmaking season is over then brought inside for the off season. Some places just leave them outside all the time. Better of the longevity of the hose if you can haul em in though. Not sure what SB's current practice is there. Maybe they do haul hose around from fixed gear to fixed gear.

I would think dragging hoses around is much more wear and tear on the hose than leaving it in one place.

 

[Bosco DaSkia]

Dragging hoses over snow is no big deal, dragging them over dirt is another story.

The problem with leaving hoses at the hydrant is that the hoses get buried and lost. Used to be in the spring time you could see up to six or eight sets of hoses at each hydrant because all of the previous hoses had been buried and lost. Digging out buried hoses is a real fucking pain in the ass.

Then there’s the whole matter of how the hoses were put away when they were last used. Were they blown out properly? Were they stored in a way that they would be able to be used? Firing up a gun with kinked up frozen hoses can be a total nightmare. And, that’s talking about firing up an old style air water gun that will allow a lot of ice to pass through it. With these new high-efficiency guns, there’s no way for rime and ice to be blown out.

Life is much easier if you can use a fresh dry hose each time you fire up.

 

[Newpylong]

That sounds like a training problem. To each their own, but my standard procedure was to shut equipment off, blow the water hoses out with air, re-attach to the gun if right next to the hydrant and hang the other side on the hydrant. If the gun is a long way from the hydrant, then remove off the gun entirely and drape it over something close by (like the hydrant or a tree) where it won't get buried. When you go to fire up again the only snow or ice is within the first 6-12" of either side from dragging (if anything), easily removable.

Dragging hoses down to thaw and roll up mid-season? No thanks if it can be avoided.

 

[cdskier]

Speaking of dragging hoses...two snowmobiles just drove past the HG lift webcam a few minutes ago doing exactly that

 

[slatham]

That sounds like a training problem. To each their own, but my standard procedure was to shut equipment off, blow the water hoses out with air, re-attach to the gun if right next to the hydrant and hang the other side on the hydrant. If the gun is a long way from the hydrant, then remove off the gun entirely and drape it over something close by (like the hydrant or a tree) where it won't get buried. When you go to fire up again the only snow or ice is within the first 6-12" of either side from dragging (if anything), easily removable.

Dragging hoses down to thaw and roll up mid-season? No thanks if it can be avoided.

From close observation this is what Bromley does. Then in off season they store them in mid station pump house.

I’ve notice from hiking Stratton that in many places they store them on the tower all year long, under the yellow or orange padding that protects skiers from the tower. Appears to be dry and out of sun so a very creative option to slogging them off mountain.

 

[oldfartrider]

I see they made snow on Organgrinder all night

 

[KustyTheKlown]

nice. stoked to finally see a true cold snap.