They replaced a bunch of pipe, added a new pumphouse and some guns around 2015. Seemed to work just fine under Peak the last few years they owned it. Maybe Vail hasn't properly maintained it the past few years.
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What in the world is going on at wildcat…
- Thread starter Hockeyski1998
- Start date
pinion
Active member
Shack is open again? Great to hear.
"Largely" NO. 7 Years ago Peaks did a fix to get it running after it shit the bed the year before.
But this years Upper Mt Blow Out set it back even further.
Duct Tape, Bailing Wire, & JB Weld can only go so far.
Stoked for 2 days comped at the Omni w/ 2 maybe 3 days @ BW
Edd
Well-known member
Nice on the Omni/BW stay. I’d like to hear Vail announce improvements to the snowmaking at Cat. Currently seems to be their largest problem but, to my knowledge, they haven’t publicly admitted that there IS an issue with the system.
abc
Well-known member
This is the end of January, for god's sake! This isn't end of November!
No disrespect for the hard working snowmakers from the west. But the east rarely have quality "weeks". "Quality" snowmaking windows may last for a week, but don't often last for 2-3 weeks in a row!
Speaking of "weeks", I believe the forecast for next week includes the dreaded R word. I'm afraid WC is toast.
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I'm not sure how you can say "Largely No". They dumped $2M into it. Replaced all the pipe on Polecat, Lynx, Catapult and Wild Kitten. Bought a ton of guns and completely overhauled the pumphouse.
It was pretty significant and I felt the results showed the next few years.
They still could stand even greater investment. Expanding the reservoir and increasing pumping capacity would go a long way
a lot of that equipment was second hand from a lost ski area (ascutney).
Didn't realize that. All I remember is they ended up doing a lot more work than what they initially announced
So it took a little digging, but I managed to get a pick of that Vail relief crew hard at work on Wildcat’s snowmaking.
(That’s a New England Ski Museum Photo from Wildcat in the 1970’s)
(That’s a New England Ski Museum Photo from Wildcat in the 1970’s)
Vail's solution to this is for us all to do our snowdances more often.
eatskisleep
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It does after all save them money and help The stock!!
From what I've seen they're not taking care of the place. I've previously posted pictures of the gully that blew out at the top of alley cat this fall. That was a result of vailcat not maintaining the mtn's water bars. They never repaired the gully, but It's been easy to see/avoid so far. They also trimmed the trees along the tomcat liftline and left much of the forest debris on the trail where people ski. I'd bet many of the glades are a mess too. We'll find out when/if we get some real snow.
We’re helping them out. The stock is now down to $266.64!
IceEidolon
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Peaks kept limping the system along, but I challenge anyone to name a mountain in the Northeast that's in tip top shape everywhere. Peaks was big into expanding coverage and adding low E guns and fans at most of their locations, but that doesn't mean pipe that was already in the ground/on trails got replaced.
machski
Well-known member
They have a long way to go, but SR is fast into overhauling the ENTIRE snowmaking system. White Cap just got completely overhauled this year and a new feedline up to the new valve house on Cascade and new WC feed down Jive/Heats On (now with dedicated guns).
If Fail does upgrade WC's system, bet they don't make much fanfare about it. Probably will just fall under their general maintenance/upgrades. They don't even publish where they are making snow, so they don't see it as big and fancy like new, big lifts.
Getting to that time of year when the fact that wildcat doesn't make shit for snow is a positive. The skiing is thin but chalky. Trails like cheetah and catapult are true packed powder and grass. If they get some snow this place is gonna be skiing fantastic. Just keep that fucking quad running
drjeff
Well-known member
Mount Snow has replaced a great deal of their pipe over the last few years, I beleive it's been something like 70k feet of pipe, plus a new main feeder line to the Summit pumphouse in conjunction with the West Lake Snowmaking project. There's still many trails though that have old pipe on their sides, and there's also still plenty of replacement pipe stashed away for future replacement and/or expansion projects.
That's not as marketing department sexy as say a new lift, however in the big scheme of things, might be more significant to the day to day snow surface management needs of any mountain
drjeff
Well-known member
If I recall correctly, what is, and likely will continue to be, a significant challenge for Wildcat's system, is a minimal supply of water, both from a storrage standpoint as well as a refilling capacity for their pond.
The reality is that they could install a massive system at Wildcat, but if that massive system can drain their pond in a couple of days, and then need many days to refill enough to really take advantage of the systems capacity, is that really a smart use of capital expenditures? Take what used to happen at Crotched as an example. That system can/could bury that mountain in 48hrs when running wide to capacity. Then they'd often have to shut it down for 3 or 4 days to get the pond refilled again. Another example is Sugarbush. While they have some storage capacity, their system when they're really running it, can drain their storage and it's refill rate in less than a week, and then they're either shutting down to let it refill or running it below capacity.
When you have a resort that has both enough of a water supply and refill capacity, as well as a system that has significant capacity and then ownership that wants to flex its snowmaking muscles on a regular basis, if that's your home hill, you sometimes can take it for granted what a good setup you have
Just the commitment to go all in on making snow and keeping the current setup in good working order would satisfy most regulars. Also pay the staff top dollar so you get the best and are staffed up. That's it really. The place doesn't need shitloads of money.
