Now that the dew tour is dead...

[VTbound]

Will we see more snow blown where it counts, or less?

[Guy in Shorts]

Les like Otten would blow.

[Spyderman]

Do not assume we'll see more snow making. Te Dew Tour paid $500,000 to Mountain Ops for the required extra snow production. Since the cash also goes away the net result will probably be no additional snow making. Sorry to say.

[DrJeff]

Do not assume we'll see more snow making. Te Dew Tour paid $500,000 to Mountain Ops for the required extra snow production. Since the cash also goes away the net result will probably be no additional snow making. Sorry to say.

Now if we can just get a "normalish" temperature winter next year, even if they make the a bit less snow than this season it will likely seem like an increase!!

[snowguy59]

no.

[Stormchaser]

My assumption is that POWDR was using the DEW TOUR to supplement their snowmaking budget. Expect $500,000 less snow blown next season...

[Geoff]

My assumption is that POWDR was using the DEW TOUR to supplement their snowmaking budget. Expect $500,000 less snow blown next season...

That $500K is an unconfirmed rumor.

The big issue was that Killington had 50% of their capacity diverted to a couple of useless trails at Bear for the first 3 weeks of January. That is no longer going to happen and the resort now has sufficient capacity to recover from a warm December or a January thaw.

The Chris Nyberg Killington got really lucky in their first years operating the resort and avoided the usual thaws that can melt the whole hill back to dirt. Before last winter, the one lean snow year was rescued by a huge dump. Their "manage by spreadsheet" philosophy didn't blow up in their faces until last winter. The resort desperately needed full snowmaking capacity on February 1 when all the leased compressors were being put on flatbed trucks and hauled out of town. The March traffic counter on the Access Road was down an astounding 17%. The sales tax collections numbers for February and March aren't out yet but January was awful.... retail sales were down 17.2%. I expect February and March to be even more bleak. If you don't make snow and brand yourself as the leader in snowmaking, customers don't show up.

Sunday River survived the March thaw mostly intact. They still had 60 trails going at a point when Killington was down to two lifts. Killington didn't make enough snow and the veneer they put down for base quickly melted to dirt. If they'd been actively resurfacing the mountain in February instead of hauling away the compressors, they likely would have had a Sunday River trail count.

[Devils Fiddle]

Less Snowmaking.

Fact. The Dew paid for its snow. That money is gone. Bye Bye.

[millerm277]

Less overall snowmaking (they did blow a lot of snow, just all of it was on Bear Claw and making up a halfpipe), but more where it's actually useful. By the time they actually had the capacity and temperatures to blow snow on what any of us wanted to ski, it was almost the beginning of February, and the compressors were about to go away. (and they would have seen significantly less return for their money, as half the season is already over).

[skiadikt]

pretty scary to think about how much less snow they'll make with 500k missing from their budget. they still have to blow a half pipe and lower skye burst just not as much and some of that probably went to build a deeper than normal base on lower wildfire. better pray for a cold & snowy winter.

doubt it but wonder if they're gonna address the pitiful snowmaking system they installed on outer limits last season. covered about 1/3 of the width of the trail. would love to see them return to the old rollout where they put a base on skiers right first and they pulled back and concentrated on skier's left the remainder of the season.

[Dr. NO]

pretty scary to think about how much less snow they'll make with 500k missing from their budget. they still have to blow a half pipe and lower skye burst just not as much and some of that probably went to build a deeper than normal base on lower wildfire. better pray for a cold & snowy winter.

doubt it but wonder if they're gonna address the pitiful snowmaking system they installed on outer limits last season. covered about 1/3 of the width of the trail. would love to see them return to the old rollout where they put a base on skiers right first and they pulled back and concentrated on skier's left the remainder of the season.

Snowmaking on Needles Eye was about the same, less than 1/2 across the hill with thin cover in many places. Only way to cover them properly is to march the guns across the way Smith used to do it. Tower guns are great, but just don't reach that far.

[RENO]

pretty scary to think about how much less snow they'll make with 500k missing from their budget. they still have to blow a half pipe and lower skye burst just not as much and some of that probably went to build a deeper than normal base on lower wildfire. better pray for a cold & snowy winter.

doubt it but wonder if they're gonna address the pitiful snowmaking system they installed on outer limits last season. covered about 1/3 of the width of the trail. would love to see them return to the old rollout where they put a base on skiers right first and they pulled back and concentrated on skier's left the remainder of the season.

Snowmaking on Needles Eye was about the same, less than 1/2 across the hill with thin cover in many places. Only way to cover them properly is to march the guns across the way Smith used to do it. Tower guns are great, but just don't reach that far.

That's what these things are for. You don't have to blow snow 500 feet across a trail. Just blow massive piles and spread it. I do agree that snowmaking was pretty weak on Needles and OL. I don't think it's because of a weakness of the system though...


And where did this $500,000 # come from? I guess if it's posted enough times on KZone it becomes fact!

[Guy in Shorts]

pretty scary to think about how much less snow they'll make with 500k missing from their budget. they still have to blow a half pipe and lower skye burst just not as much and some of that probably went to build a deeper than normal base on lower wildfire. better pray for a cold & snowy winter.

doubt it but wonder if they're gonna address the pitiful snowmaking system they installed on outer limits last season. covered about 1/3 of the width of the trail. would love to see them return to the old rollout where they put a base on skiers right first and they pulled back and concentrated on skier's left the remainder of the season.

Snowmaking on Needles Eye was about the same, less than 1/2 across the hill with thin cover in many places. Only way to cover them properly is to march the guns across the way Smith used to do it. Tower guns are great, but just don't reach that far.

That's what these things are for. You don't have to blow snow 500 feet across a trail. Just blow massive piles and spread it. I do agree that snowmaking was pretty weak on Needles and OL. I don't think it's because of a weakness of the system though...


And where did this $500,000 # come from? I guess if it's posted enough times on KZone it becomes fact!

Maybe if everyone on the Kzone made right turns only down OL and Needles we could push all that snow across the hill.