VAIL SUCKS

[dB.cooper]

No lack of water at The Cat.
Snowmaking pond is as full as it has ever been.

WC has plenty of water.

 

[deadheadskier]

The old GM and MTN Ops director both said to me that unless it's single digits or lower, the spring fed streams that fill their snowmaking reservoir can refill it from empty in 36-48 hours.

 

[Zand]

Anyone know if the freezing rain got up to Okemo at all? Snow report mentions 4" snow and nothing about ice so maybe they stayed north of it. Thinking that's my play for tomorrow. They have some fun nats open on South Face that I enjoy. Wouldn't mind hitting that before the rain.

Was gonna finally get back to Stowe this weekend but nature has other plans and I'm not gonna waste time off to go ski groomers.

 

[Zand]

Looks like Broomfield didn't feel like updating any snow reports this morning. Vail sucks.

 

[pinion]

Wildcat and Attitash snow reports quiet as well.

 

[2Planker]

Wildcat and Attitash snow reports quiet as well.

?? NO lifts running at both places is kinda odd

 

[pinion]

?? NO lifts running at both places is kinda odd

They are running, but the daily snow report wasn't updated today. I was hoping for some definitive news on the Snowcat.

 

[jimmywilson69]

appears to be a "system wide" webpage glitch.

I will say a lot of the resorts have actually been updating them daily which is refreshing.

 

[2Planker]

They are running, but the daily snow report wasn't updated today. I was hoping for some definitive news on the Snowcat.

Right there on the Snow Report from yesterday....

Snowcat Update – Updated 1/7

Today is an important day as we will have our key stakeholders on-site to complete our final acceptance test for the Snowcat lift, working closely with our partners from the NH State Tramway Safety Board and the USFS to ensure full alignment on our path to reopening the lift safely. Please stay tuned to this report tomorrow for details around what you can expect, and my thoughts on a path towards reopening the lift. Things look really positive, and it’s important to me that I don’t over promise and set the right expectations to you our community. Every day I hear how much everyone is looking forward to coming back to ride this lift and believe me when I say we are getting REALLY close!

I also wanted to address questions around timing on this project and would share that unlike replacing like for like parts, modifying and upgrading a lift with an all-new electrical system takes time. This includes design, engineering, and building components and new buildings. After spending significant time and outside resources last season to repair the existing lift control system, ultimately we made the decision in March to modernize and upgrade. Upgrades like these are generally planned out and executed over 12+ months, and we attempted to do it in 8, giving us little room to address and challenges that may arise.

 

[pinion]

Now that we got that out the way, I am ready to share the news many of you have been waiting so patiently for. Thanks to the dedicated work of so many teams and vendors over the last year, as well as some last-minute modifications in partnership with our lift engineer and governing agencies, I couldn’t be more excited to share that the Snowcat Lift has passed its load and acceptance test at full capacity, and we will be re-opening the lift tomorrow at 9am with access to the Snowcat Slope & Snowcat Trail! To celebrate the occasion, we will be handing out treats, hot beverages, and some swag in the lift line tomorrow, and we invite you all to come celebrate with our team!

A huge sigh of relief to someone who parks in B-lot and has a large family group headed there MLK weekend. Also... finally a ray of hope at Wildcat this year.

 

[Joesmith125]

Hi all I am currently making a school research project on the effects of the buyouts of ski resorts on the public. It would greatly help my project if you all answered this quick survey on your own experiences with your mountain before and after it was last bought. https://forms.office.com/r/ksggegkbg1

 

[BenedictGomez]

Posting in "Alterra sucks" and "Vail suck" forums might not be the very best way to attain unbiased research.

 

[pinion]

Snow Surfaces Update

You may have noticed that Middle and Lower Lynx are all set up and ready to go, and we expect to fire that up as we see favorable temps returning Sunday night and into Monday morning. We are going to give that trail a lot of attention to bulk it up for the remainder of the season, then we plan to move onto the Middle & Lower Catapult / Alley Cat / Black Cat pod of terrain next.

This is from today's Wildcat report. I know we've discussed a few times in the forum the importance of Middle Catapult as an option out of the Middle Wildcat boilerplate, and bemoaned the lack of snowmaking on Alley Cat and Lower Catapult.

As for Black Cat... I don't recall ever seeing snowmaking there? Cautiously optimistic on this one, but assuming they are willing to make the snow, having the entire old Gondi line reliably open t2b would be pretty awesome.

Vail still sucks but it appears someone at Wildcat has finally realized the potential of the Bobcat pod so I am happy... for now...

 

[deadheadskier]

This is from today's Wildcat report. I know we've discussed a few times in the forum the importance of Middle Catapult as an option out of the Middle Wildcat boilerplate, and bemoaned the lack of snowmaking on Alley Cat and Lower Catapult.

As for Black Cat... I don't recall ever seeing snowmaking there? Cautiously optimistic on this one, but assuming they are willing to make the snow, having the entire old Gondi line reliably open t2b would be pretty awesome.

Vail still sucks but it appears someone at Wildcat has finally realized the potential of the Bobcat pod so I am happy... for now...

Their old MTN ops manager Patrick made snow on Black Cat 2 or 3 times in the mid to late teens and also Starr Line a couple of years. It was good and bad. The good was it made for fantastic spring bumps that stretched well into April. The bad is especially on Black Cat, it was often just ice whales. The whales never got pushed out whenever they made snow on it.

Never seen snow made on Lift Lion. I assume due to a broken pipe.

The other issue is all of the old gondola tower foundations remain. That means more snow needs to be made than normal to cover that up and avoid trashing a PistenBully.

And agreed on Middle Catapult and Alley Cat. Those should be high priority for snowmaking. Middle Wildcat always gets skied down to boilerplate. It would be expensive, but that few hundred yards could really use some oscillating, tower fan guns to refresh it often.