Will snowmaking shut down early this season?

[ColdRain&Snow]

Over the weekend, I heard more than once Stratton will shut down snowmaking the week after President's Day

One big push for the last big holiday week, even though it’ll be too warm for a few days.

Just an ugly rumor?

 

[Smellytele]

That is the norm at most places.

 

[xlr8r]

To my eyes it seems like there has not been much snowmaking lately at the big resorts to refresh trails. Is this a consequence of the megapass sales, that now the resorts have little incentive to do their best snowmaking and grooming to drive ticket sales. Money is already in the bag.

 

[machski]

To my eyes it seems like there has not been much snowmaking lately at the big resorts to refresh trails. Is this a consequence of the megapass sales, that now the resorts have little incentive to do their best snowmaking and grooming to drive ticket sales. Money is already in the bag.

Don't know where you've been skiing, but not the case at Sunday River. They have constantly remade trails, especially high traffic ones and are still pushing out to finish covering some of the double diamonds that have yet to get a full coat. It will be interesting to see if they shutdown post Presidents week or not. Also interested to see their plan for late season this year if in fact Barker is getting replaced this summer. They will need to shut that area down and start prepping beginning of April I would think if they want any chance of a new Barker by Thanksgiving.

 

[NYDB]

Over the weekend, I heard more than once Stratton will shut down snowmaking the week after President's Day

One big push for the last big holiday week, even though it’ll be too warm for a few days.

Just an ugly rumor?

look for them to shut down services at sunbowl earlier then normal too. the only thing keeping them tied to trying to keep it open is the park build over there and they never really got the entire pod open there this year. they'll lose more open trails over there this week with the warm up and rain.
I'm sure they will light up a few high traffic trails after the Friday rain, but that's probably all she wrote for snowmaking this season.

 

[ColdRain&Snow]

To my eyes it seems like there has not been much snowmaking lately at the big resorts to refresh trails. Is this a consequence of the megapass sales, that now the resorts have little incentive to do their best snowmaking and grooming to drive ticket sales. Money is already in the bag.

I’m wondering if their energy costs blew out their budgets this year, and they need to pray for natural snow.


I don’t remember exactly, but I’m pretty sure Stratton blew snow in March the past two seasons.

 

[ColdRain&Snow]

look for them to shut down services at sunbowl earlier then normal too. the only thing keeping them tied to trying to keep it open is the park build over there and they never really got the entire pod open there this year. they'll lose more open trails over there this week with the warm up and rain.
I'm sure they will light up a few high traffic trails after the Friday rain, but that's probably all she wrote for snowmaking this season.

Then the temps drop down again, and that’s school vacation week, so maybe they keep cranking a little longer?

 

[BodeMiller1]

At this point we don't know. If a resort can keep most of the mountain in good shape yep, butt they're winding down.

Meow

 

[thebigo]

Loon definitely has a few areas that need resurfacing, primarily south peak. Snow report last week said they would continue to make snow as necessary.

Ragged is almost certainly done but not sure they need more snow anywhere. Trails are as deep as last year, park build less impressive.

 

[Newpylong]

I think it depends. The players that are normally done by now will be done.

The big dogs are still going. Killington is still hammering Outer Limits and probably will again before the end of the season.

Stratton's snowmaking from what I have seen and heard from the regulars has been terrible this season. Oddly they have one of the most powerful systems in the East so who knows whats going on there.

 

[NYDB]

Then the temps drop down again, and that’s school vacation week, so maybe they keep cranking a little longer?

when do they drop again after the fri/sat 24 hour window?

 

[thetrailboss]

That is the norm at most places.

I was about to say that. Except for places like Killington.

 

[drjeff]

I think it depends. The players that are normally done by now will be done.

The big dogs are still going. Killington is still hammering Outer Limits and probably will again before the end of the season.

Stratton's snowmaking from what I have seen and heard from the regulars has been terrible this season. Oddly they have one of the most powerful systems in the East so who knows whats going on there.

Heard from some Stratton parents who I rode up the lift with yesterday while they were at Mount Snow for their kids mogul comp.

They said that the rumor is that there's currently a significant issue with their pumping system with apparently not much rush to fix it until the off season.

Chairlift rumors... Who knows the validity to it or not

 

[icecoast1]

look for them to shut down services at sunbowl earlier then normal too. the only thing keeping them tied to trying to keep it open is the park build over there and they never really got the entire pod open there this year. they'll lose more open trails over there this week with the warm up and rain.
I'm sure they will light up a few high traffic trails after the Friday rain, but that's probably all she wrote for snowmaking this season.

All they need is the lift, the lodge and all other operations can shut down. It's a shame they aren't going to get it all open this year, some of the best terrain on the mountain over there

 

[ColdRain&Snow]

All they need is the lift, the lodge and all other operations can shut down. It's a shame they aren't going to get it all open this year, some of the best terrain on the mountain over there

Yeah, my favorite run is kidderbrook and I don’t think it’s opened at all this year, and it wasn’t open much last year.

I loved that kidderbrook lift.

 

[NYDB]

Heard from some Stratton parents who I rode up the lift with yesterday while they were at Mount Snow for their kids mogul comp.

They said that the rumor is that there's currently a significant issue with their pumping system with apparently not much rush to fix it until the off season.

Chairlift rumors... Who knows the validity to it or not

that is my understanding from several employees there (not in snowmaking) there are 3 main pumping stations and one went down around mlk. they haven't fixed it as of yet.

 

[ThatGuy]

I’m not really well versed in the ops of ski areas but are there a lot of places with aging infrastructure that will need a big overhaul in the coming years? Killingtons snowmaking system gives me that vibe.

 

[Kingslug20]

Pro active maintenace..fix or replace before it breaks
Reactive maintenance..fix it after it breaks
Guess which one is astronomicaly more expensive...

 

[Newpylong]

It's hard to quantify because you're dealing with potential loss of revenue and wasted man hours as the result of lack of replacement/maintenance. If you take that unknown (but large potential number when rolling the dice) out of the equation it's certainly cheaper to send up the welder and patch things up vs getting ahead of it.

 

[WoodCore]

that is my understanding from several employees there (not in snowmaking) there are 3 main pumping stations and one went down around mlk. they haven't fixed it as of yet.

2 out of 3 isn't that bad if these rumors are true. If this did happen around MLK, they've managed to pump out a healthy amount of snow since. The whales last week on Upper Standard and World Cup were impressive!! The snow at Stratton might not be made were you all want it but, it's where it needs to be in an extremely crappy snow/weather year.