Superstar

[brownman]

Saw the snowmakers out there today (in the snowstorm) digging out the buried guns and hoses on Superstar.

Eegads .. snowmakers out in such nasty weather
Actually, some of those buried hoses got sliced up pretty good last few days
Lots of rope lines in play

[daytripper]

Saw the snowmakers out there today (in the snowstorm) digging out the buried guns and hoses on Superstar.

Eegads .. snowmakers out in such nasty weather
Actually, some of those buried hoses got sliced up pretty good last few days
Lots of rope lines in play

Watched them digging out the hoses while riding the lift, had 3 guns going on the "headwall" last time I rode the SS lift around 2.

[Mister Moose]

Blowing top to bottom today. 2 fan guns at the base. A mixture of air hogs, old tower guns and the new snow logic towers running. Even colder air expected this weekend.

[jimmywilson69]

How's the production looking on SS? you can finally see the snowmaking on the webcams after the snow let up! Deep snow on the sides of the trails and in the woods should help prevent the evil melting later this spring. The last few marches haven't had deep snow adjacent to the trail like this year.

[throbster]

Guns are done until next fall. Massive milky white boobs line skiers left half of SS. It looks to be an average glacier this year.

[Mister Moose]

Distribution looks different. For instance, at the High Road cut-off, there's a lot more downhill than I've seen before, meaning you're standing considerably higher looking into it from 50 feet in towards the chair.

[rogman]

How's it looking these days?

Like a large vertical bulge next to a zipper-like liftline?

[Captain Hafski]

How's it looking these days compared to years past?Haven't seen or heard much about it and haven't been up this year yet to see for myself. Are they going to make it to June or even attempt to??

At the end of Sunday, it looked like a long, white, Brontasurus tail all the way up the mountain from the chair.

[Stormchaser]

How's it looking these days compared to years past?Haven't seen or heard much about it and haven't been up this year yet to see for myself. Are they going to make it to June or even attempt to??

At the end of Sunday, it looked like a long, white, Brontasurus tail all the way up the mountain from the chair.

Pile at the top is significantly shorter than past years...perhaps they've got a new stockpile distribution plan this season.

[BoozeTan]

Pile at the top is significantly shorter than past years...perhaps they've got a new stockpile distribution plan this season.

Rode superstar lift with a snowmaker 2 weeks ago. I asked him about that very thing. The Glacier didnt look as big as it should. He told me that they have been making more snow in the usual melt out spots that form the S. He said they were planning to still blow at least another 15 feet in those areas. as well as the top

[Stormchaser]

Pile at the top is significantly shorter than past years...perhaps they've got a new stockpile distribution plan this season.

Rode superstar lift with a snowmaker 2 weeks ago. I asked him about that very thing. The Glacier didnt look as big as it should. He told me that they have been making more snow in the usual melt out spots that form the S. He said they were planning to still blow at least another 15 feet in those areas. as well as the top

Good to hear!

The bigger problem at "the meltout spots" is that with 20' of snow on the trail, the topography of the ground no longer mimics the topography of the snow surface. When groomers smooth things out, they flatten terrain creating higher depths and lower depths where the natural terrain bulges beneath the snow. Experienced grooming crews with natural terrain maps in their tractor cabs should be making efforts to match the contours of the snow surface to the natural contours of the land below, thereby creating uniform snow depth on the trail. Piling snow at the top of Prestons pitch and the lower water bar crossing will only be effective if the groomers don't push it into the natural terrain depressions either side of those bulges. Hell, just put depth markers on some of the lift towers in those areas for the groomers to work off.

[Big Bob]

They have been testing and teaching the snowmakers how to use new snow guns during this last push.

[Mister Moose]

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From the road the spine is clearly visible.

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Looking up at tower 5.

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The Jayne Mansfield section.

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Views of the top mound.

[Mister Moose]

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The downside of fanguns - Iced up.


There's good coverage on the Launch Pad entry point, you go a good 15 feet up there. The weak spots right now to my eye now are:

Base, no huge pile there as in past years for the lift line.
Top, the mound is lower than the past 5 years.
Tower 4, there's coverage, but it looks like it will burn through earlier as usual.

Given the successful spine experiment for the last 2 years, the top mound this year should have more vertical, and less horizontal. That large flat spot gets too much sun, you need to lower the surface area/volume ratio. 2/3 of it is wasted to melt in mid May.

[madhatter]

2018-03-19 17.04.14[1].jpg

The downside of fanguns - Iced up.


There's good coverage on the Launch Pad entry point, you go a good 15 feet up there. The weak spots right now to my eye now are:

Base, no huge pile there as in past years for the lift line.
Top, the mound is lower than the past 5 years.
Tower 4, there's coverage, but it looks like it will burn through earlier as usual.

Given the successful spine experiment for the last 2 years, the top mound this year should have more vertical, and less horizontal. That large flat spot gets too much sun, you need to lower the surface area/volume ratio. 2/3 of it is wasted to melt in mid May.

last place to see the sun from andrei's deck was the western face of the peak...last thing before that was every one of those jane mansfields on the side facing the lift...woulda took a pic but we were in the hot tub...I'll remember for next time though...