Why I'm glad I bought a pass to Heavenly...

[snoseek]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dF29I3tSLSs


I'vebeen watching this go downfor over a week now. Things are desperate here in Tahoe and Vail resorts, love them or hate them, have done absolutely everything they can at Heavenly/Northstar to provide a decent experience. This piece of trail is sooooo critical in the way the mtn skis.

With that said I'm pretty stoked for the six or so feet of snow in the forecast this week!!!!Now more time at Kirkwood (which has also done a fantastic job given the weather). Bring on the cement

 

[SIKSKIER]

That link doesn't work for me.

 

[snoseek]

Hmmmmm, cant seem to figure it out. Anyway I changed the link to the heavenly tv. Click the movie that says operation skyline trail.

 

[snoseek]

OK Got the same thing right of of youtube, god im techtarded!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dF29I3tSLSs

 

[Hawkshot99]

That is impressive

 

[jerryg]

Yep, that first snow will be cement, but as you know better than most, the Tahoe resorts need the cement for base. With each wave, the snow line will drop and the higher elevations will get drier snow.
And that's just 6 feet in the next week.
I think Snowmonster needs to be there. Just sayin'!

 

[snoseek]

Yep, that first snow will be cement, but as you know better than most, the Tahoe resorts need the cement for base. With each wave, the snow line will drop and the higher elevations will get drier snow.
And that's just 6 feet in the next week.
I think Snowmonster needs to be there. Just sayin'!

Utah is gonna get f&^cking pounded in the next week also, definately gonna make that trip soon. We need cement, gunbarrel can wait for now.

Snowmonster would come out here but he said that he's too afraid of the big scary slopes at Kirkwood:flame:

 

[jerryg]

Not only impressive, but as always, the video quality is fantastic. the in-house videography and editing is always fantastic with their promos and updates to projects. It's like a whole different level of professionalism, and likely cost, too. Ha!

 

[legalskier]

Moving snow on chairlift at Heavenly

The weather isn't cooperating, and necessity is the mother of invention. The guys shoveling snow into those buckets will be hurtin' for a month....

 

[gmcunni]

http://forums.alpinezone.com/showthread.php?t=106282

 

[legalskier]

I missed that one, thanks. It's still awesome though!

 

[gmcunni]

I missed that one, thanks. It's still awesome though!

yes, it is!

 

[thetrailboss]

That is crazy......

 

[drjeff]

Hmmm, I think I know one of the new improvements for Heavenly for the '12-'13 season now, and it will involve about 4500' of new snowmaking terrain

That one shot of the cat reaching the end of the snowpushing mark with just barren dirt really shows that as tough as we've had it in the East this year, it could be worse, since in general we East coasters atleast have a decent percentage of our terrain with snowmaking capabilities!

 

[180]

very cool

 

[TheBEast]

Wow, that is amazing.....drjeff has that one right. Bet that's the first off season project up and running!

 

[jerryg]

The funny thing is that while a trail like Skyline doesn't have snowmaking, Heavenly still has more snowmaking than almost every resort west of the Mississippi. IIRC, they have guns that cover 70% of their trails. The trails make up about 600 out of 4800 skiable acres and so with just under 400 acres of snowmkaing terrain, that's not bad a for a western resort.
As time goes on, more and more people are thanking LBO and for the increase in SM over the past 15 years, people can thank LBO, who made it a priority there.

Hmmm, I think I know one of the new improvements for Heavenly for the '12-'13 season now, and it will involve about 4500' of new snowmaking terrain

That one shot of the cat reaching the end of the snowpushing mark with just barren dirt really shows that as tough as we've had it in the East this year, it could be worse, since in general we East coasters atleast have a decent percentage of our terrain with snowmaking capabilities!

 

[deadheadskier]

Do they pump water straight from the lake? It has always been my understanding that the limited amount of snowmaking in the west is part due to not need it as frequently as we do the east, but also that most areas lack for water.

 

[millerm277]

@drjeff, they've had it approved to add snowmaking to since 1996 it appears. Definitely bet it's going to happen.

@deadheadskier: here is the snowmaking/resort master plan, and the map to go along with it.

http://www.trpa.org/documents/docdwnlds/Heavenly/5_SNOWMAKING.pdf
http://www.trpa.org/documents/docdwnlds/Heavenly/MAP_SNOWMAKING.pdf

For a quick summary (if I'm reading this right), and keep in mind this is as of May 2007.

California:
16,800cfm of permanant air
5 million gallon reservoir
4300gpm pumping capacity (2800 below dam/1500 above dam)

Nevada:
38,200cfm of permanent air
50 million gallon reservoir
3600gpm of pumping capacity.

Total pumping capacity: 7900gpm - (Not bad: Killington is 12000gpm IIRC).

However, they have very limited recharge rates on their reservoirs, it appears only around 800gpm on the CA side and 600gpm (for only 16 hours a day) on the Nevada side. They want to add 2500gpm of recharge to the system, as well as additional pumping capacity from the reservoirs. (No clue if it's been implemented).


If anyone is that interested, I can provide a bunch more related documents.

 

[jerryg]

Do they pump water straight from the lake? It has always been my understanding that the limited amount of snowmaking in the west is part due to not need it as frequently as we do the east, but also that most areas lack for water.

No. Resorts are not allowed to pump water from the lake. Lake Level is a constant (Notice the emphasis) concern and topic in the basin and the notion of a resort using the water to make snow would probably put some environmentalists over te edge. The local ski areas get their snowmaking water from local aquafiers. I believe that Heavenly's back up aquafier is at a lower elevation in Nevada. For example, Heavemly has several on-mountain snowmaking ponds that obvioulsy get used first. One of them is actually a really large pond at about 9000 feet that is not manmade and can support most of their snowmaking needs.

By-in-large, snowmaking hasn't developed as much in a the west due to natural snowfall dependence, but this changed someone when more and more World Cup races were being cancelled in the US during lean snow years.

For example, Heavenly hosted their last WC DH in 1986 and after that year, took out the lift and trails that serviced the end of the men's course. The problem was that the course had southern exposure and dropped below the elevation of both Nevada bases, which also meant if was below the dependable snowline. Because there was no snowmaking down there, any snow they got, would sometimes melt quickly in the sun. That larger pod itself, just received snowmaking in the past 3-5 years and the resort intends to re-install the Wells Fargo lift in the coming years.

Sorry, I got carried away... :beer: