powderfreak Posted November 15, 2012 Share Posted November 15, 2012 there's actually a pretty strong inversion now, which should benefit the low elevation resorts. It was 32 on top of mount Washington and in the teens in many lower elevation city's at 6 this morning. We are inverted at Stowe... 32F at 4000ft and 30F at 1,500ft with a cold spot of 27F at 2,700ft. These are ambient temps though and all snowmakers care about is wet bulb... wetbulb is still down in the mid/upper 20s most elevations. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
powderfreak Posted November 15, 2012 Share Posted November 15, 2012 Elevationwise, can the NH mountains make snow as much/often as VT? I would think they can make more snow... The Whites have a higher average elevation than the Greens. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
#NoPoles Posted November 15, 2012 Share Posted November 15, 2012 why the heck is WaWa not making snow??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tamarack Posted November 15, 2012 Share Posted November 15, 2012 I would think they can make more snow... The Whites have a higher average elevation than the Greens. The Whites get a lot taller, but I think the lift-serviced elevations there are pretty similar to those in the northern Greens. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quakertown needs snow Posted November 15, 2012 Share Posted November 15, 2012 great pic's from stowe. snowbird this week Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CT Rain Posted November 15, 2012 Share Posted November 15, 2012 Can't wait to get up to VT this winter. Planning a bunch of trips this year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChrisM Posted November 15, 2012 Share Posted November 15, 2012 why the heck is WaWa not making snow??? marginal snow making temperatures at best, warm days, not a great outlook for sustained cold. Heck at the temperatures they're at they could probably only make crappy snow like 3 nights in the next week at best. No reason to pull the trigger. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkO Posted November 15, 2012 Share Posted November 15, 2012 Looking to tune my skis, any recommendations on a tuning kit? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HoarfrostHubb Posted November 15, 2012 Share Posted November 15, 2012 marginal snow making temperatures at best, warm days, not a great outlook for sustained cold. Heck at the temperatures they're at they could probably only make crappy snow like 3 nights in the next week at best. No reason to pull the trigger. It was in the 20s from 9PM until after 7AM last night/this morning. They could have blasted. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
powderfreak Posted November 15, 2012 Share Posted November 15, 2012 Round the clock snowmaking continues... impressive amounts of snow are being added daily, haha. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hitman Posted November 16, 2012 Share Posted November 16, 2012 How are the new guns performing? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HoarfrostHubb Posted November 16, 2012 Share Posted November 16, 2012 Looks awesome, Scott. I love watching the groomers do their thing Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Torchey Posted November 16, 2012 Share Posted November 16, 2012 I always thought it was so depressing heading up to Okemo in my younger days and seeing the slopes white and everything else brown, of course we enjoyed skiing but just a let down. Seems so unnatural. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hitman Posted November 16, 2012 Share Posted November 16, 2012 I always thought it was so depressing heading up to Okemo in my younger days and seeing the slopes white and everything else brown, of course we enjoyed skiing but just a let down. Seems so unnatural. Couldnt agree more. Need snow otg to make it feel like winter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
#NoPoles Posted November 16, 2012 Share Posted November 16, 2012 Wachusett Status Update on FB: A lot of you have been asking why we haven't made snow lately, especially when it's been below freezing at night. The answer: It's just been too warm during the daylight hours, so even if we blow for a few hours at night our efforts would have been wasted. We are ready and waiting to go full blast once the temperature gets consistently colder. All we need is a few nights of solid snowmaking to get this place open for skiing! Stay tuned... hmmm, i don't buy that at all...temps in the upper 20's at night, day temps in the upper 40's? manmade snow doesn't melt all that easily with day temps in the 40's...i think they blew some snow earlier in the month just to get customers hyped up and chomping at the bit for opening day...i don't actually think they have the snowmaking system/guns to be able to keep up with the bigger mtns who actually open before Thanksgiving every year...just a marketing plow...pretty good one though, cause i'm about ready to pee my pants waiting for them to open! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mob1 Posted November 16, 2012 Share Posted November 16, 2012 Jiminy Peak is opening again for the weekend, I'll be there Sunday. Regarding the nighttime snowmaking temperatures, there was probably enough hours during the night at lower elevations to make snow that would stick around during the day (obviously some of it would melt but over 5-6 nights they can accumulate a substantial amount) Woodbury blew snow pretty much every night this week, granted over a small area, and it's holding up pretty well considering their location. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HoarfrostHubb Posted November 16, 2012 Share Posted November 16, 2012 Wachusett Status Update on FB: A lot of you have been asking why we haven't made snow lately, especially when it's been below freezing at night. The answer: It's just been too warm during the daylight hours, so even if we blow for a few hours at night our efforts would have been wasted. We are ready and waiting to go full blast once the temperature gets consistently colder. All we need is a few nights of solid snowmaking to get this place open for skiing! Stay tuned... hmmm, i don't buy that at all...temps in the upper 20's at night, day temps in the upper 40's? manmade snow doesn't melt all that easily with day temps in the 40's...i think they blew some snow earlier in the month just to get customers hyped up and chomping at the bit for opening day...i don't actually think they have the snowmaking system/guns to be able to keep up with the bigger mtns who actually open before Thanksgiving every year...just a marketing plow...pretty good one though, cause i'm about ready to pee my pants waiting for them to open! And they spent squat on snowmaking last year... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
powderfreak Posted November 16, 2012 Share Posted November 16, 2012 I always thought it was so depressing heading up to Okemo in my younger days and seeing the slopes white and everything else brown, of course we enjoyed skiing but just a let down. Seems so unnatural. It is interesting... to have the man-made snow next to grass. These piles are freaking huge though...there's like 10-15 feet worth of snow down the side of this trail at Spruce Peak. Stowe though has sort of two ski areas... Spruce Peak faces due south and is called Sunny Spruce by a lot of folks. This is why. There's no natural snow on it all the way up to the top there at 3,600ft. However the main mountain terrain on Mansfield primarily faces northeast. The snow preservation is about as good as it gets and this NE facing part of the mountain only sees sun from like 7-10am. Its amazing because the sun sets on that terrain at 10am and it goes into the shade...it never warms up and that's why the snow depths can become massive in the woods and last well into May. Compare these two bottom photos with the photo of Spruce Peak above. All photos taken at the same time around noon today. One mountain has no natural snow all the way to the top at 3,600ft... while Mansfield and its great preservation has natural snow cover all the way down to 1,800ft. The sunset time on this terrain is 10am right now. Luckily the best skiing is where the snow preservation is best, and at least with a few inches on the ground on the Mansfield side, we won't be skiing next to dirt and grass....just a few inches on the ground to look white from the chairlift makes it more enjoyable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
powderfreak Posted November 16, 2012 Share Posted November 16, 2012 Wachusett Status Update on FB: A lot of you have been asking why we haven't made snow lately, especially when it's been below freezing at night. The answer: It's just been too warm during the daylight hours, so even if we blow for a few hours at night our efforts would have been wasted. We are ready and waiting to go full blast once the temperature gets consistently colder. All we need is a few nights of solid snowmaking to get this place open for skiing! Stay tuned... This whole paragraph contradicts itself. They start off by saying the nights are below freezing, but their efforts would be wasted (I'm skeptical as even at 45F man-made snow isn't going anywhere; take earlier this week it was 50-70F for two days and it didn't hurt any of the major mountains). Then they go on to say, "all we need is a few nights of solid snowmaking to get this place open".... well, isn't that what they could've just had? A run of 4 solid cold nights? Its hard to believe they are that far behind like Jiminy Peak in the Berkshires, as well as any number of other ski areas in New England. Granted its colder in NNE, but relative to normal its been the same -1F to -2F departures across the board. If they can't make it happen in a below normal temperature regime, I wonder what they are waiting for. Most folks in the industry I've talked to (both S/CNE and NNE) believe this has been one of the better Novembers in recent memory for snowmaking with temperatures averaging a touch below normal for the month and a very dry pattern with low RH. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HoarfrostHubb Posted November 16, 2012 Share Posted November 16, 2012 PF, while I am pretty ticked they did not use the last 2 nights to their advantage, they really did not have too many other opportunities prior to the big early week warmup and the rain. SMH at the last 2 nights though. I think my high temp the last 3 days was 43... not enough to melt much Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ginx snewx Posted November 16, 2012 Share Posted November 16, 2012 The groomers are out on SR, how sweet is this web cam pic from Ski Esta resort Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
powderfreak Posted November 16, 2012 Share Posted November 16, 2012 PF, while I am pretty ticked they did not use the last 2 nights to their advantage, they really did not have too many other opportunities prior to the big early week warmup and the rain. SMH at the last 2 nights though. I think my high temp the last 3 days was 43... not enough to melt much Oh ok... yeah I didn't know how you did you last week during the really cold stretch prior to the warm up. And if its only 2 nights, they probably wouldn't be able to open but I really doubt with seasonable to slightly below normal temps, if they made snow the last two nights it would've melted away. I just don't see it, even if you just blow some piles and let it sit, that snow is so dense (like sleet ratios) there's no way you'll melt a 2-4 foot pile of it during the course of an afternoon with temps near 40F. Melting man-made snow is literally like trying to melt a few feet of sleet. That stuff is extremely durable, especially this time of year with a non-existent sun angle and long shadows all day long. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
powderfreak Posted November 16, 2012 Share Posted November 16, 2012 The groomers are out on SR, how sweet is this web cam pic from Ski Esta resort That is an awesome cam view. Nice grab. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
#NoPoles Posted November 17, 2012 Share Posted November 17, 2012 This whole paragraph contradicts itself. They start off by saying the nights are below freezing, but their efforts would be wasted (I'm skeptical as even at 45F man-made snow isn't going anywhere; take earlier this week it was 50-70F for two days and it didn't hurt any of the major mountains). Then they go on to say, "all we need is a few nights of solid snowmaking to get this place open".... well, isn't that what they could've just had? A run of 4 solid cold nights? Its hard to believe they are that far behind like Jiminy Peak in the Berkshires, as well as any number of other ski areas in New England. Granted its colder in NNE, but relative to normal its been the same -1F to -2F departures across the board. If they can't make it happen in a below normal temperature regime, I wonder what they are waiting for. Most folks in the industry I've talked to (both S/CNE and NNE) believe this has been one of the better Novembers in recent memory for snowmaking with temperatures averaging a touch below normal for the month and a very dry pattern with low RH. Wachusett picked the week before the torch to blow snow...they ran their snow guns for 3 nights...then it rained and we "torched" for two days...but since then the temp regime has been back to normal...20's at night and 40's during day on WaWa...i don't buy their rationale one bit...like you said, it makes no sense...they would like to open the day after Thanksgving...If they had started blowing again two nights ago...what a run of snow making nights they could have leading up to the 23rd...and we have a sun angle that is the equivalent as the end of January so high temps in the 40's would not make a dent in their manmade snow if they were start their snow making efforts in earnest...obviously there is another reason why they aren't blowing, but I don't like the answer they keep giving about not having the right conditions... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
N. OF PIKE Posted November 17, 2012 Share Posted November 17, 2012 Ya wachusett is just b.s period. They blew a week before they should have and didn't blow this week, when they should, they look like morons really. Blow on a shaded n/ne facing trail u cheapskates, temps are cold enuf for snowmaking by 7pm this week, were not that dumb. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
#NoPoles Posted November 17, 2012 Share Posted November 17, 2012 so tonight was the winter fire celebration at Wachusett...supposedly to celebrate the beginning of snowmaking...temps in th 20's and still not making snow...i guess i don't get their marketing plan, and obviously i don't know what their snowmaking budget is...maybe they are a little gun-shy from last season...who knows, but they could have opened on the 23rd if they really wanted to...maybe they really can't open till December, but always put forth a November opening as a marketing ploy... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
N. OF PIKE Posted November 17, 2012 Share Posted November 17, 2012 Wachusett, poor decision, the locals are not happy w u. Should be making a solid base on a couple well shaded areas Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChrisM Posted November 17, 2012 Share Posted November 17, 2012 It was in the 20s from 9PM until after 7AM last night/this morning. They could have blasted. "In the 20s" as in what...? 29? You really need wet bulb temperatures around ~24 and lower to start making good snow in most cases. That and it's almost getting to the 50s during the day. Snowmaking costs an astronomical amount of money and it's honestly kind of silly to make marginal snow at night and have a good chunk of it melt during the days. 50 and sun doesn't do great things for snow when it's 5 days in a row of it. I agree with their decision. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
radarman Posted November 17, 2012 Share Posted November 17, 2012 Blue skies and a lot of folks smiling at okemo. Another year on the snow and all is right in the world. And should be pulling back into town just as the rink opens. Sliding through life is the way to go. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
powderfreak Posted November 17, 2012 Share Posted November 17, 2012 What an awesome opening day at Stowe.... can't believe how good the snow quality was even though its 99.9% man-made. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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