snoloco wrote:Answering Southside Bobby's post on the last page.
If there was no WC to prepare for then there would be no question in my mind that they would be blowing top to bottom on Snowdon. They always run that fan gun on Mouse Trap because it's a return line, so they blow snow when they have temps there as it doesn't require any air.
And I agree, the stairs are for use in late October when they are open for a couple weeks before anyone else even tests their guns. If Mount Snow and Okemo can be open this weekend, then Killington has the weather needed to open top to bottom. However, their efforts are going to the World Cup preparation, so they will not be top to bottom.
What I noticed on the 360 cam is they're blowing Gateway off the back of Skye Peak. Not really sure what the point of it is, although it could be to get a loop around the back of Skye Peak open to allow the lift and other trails off Superstar to be open during the event. I didn't think the FIS let anyone on a lift over a course though.
snoloco, unless you think K is lying when they say that their crew on the North side is the same size as years without the race, then the only way they could move expansion any faster is to add more crew than normal.
K's snowmaking operations are very labor intensive compared to a lot of mountains. That is a choice they made, and it certainly has disadvantages.
It's not like Mount Snow, where if it is cold enough they can light up Long John top to bottom with a flip of a switch (this is not as much an exaggeration as you might think.).
If the North Ridge had already been open a couple of weeks, they could be finishing a march down Snowdon by now. But they just got the North Ridge open yesterday. It takes at least some time to move on.
We'll see come next week who is right on this. You think WC prep is slowing the expansion. I don't think it is.
If we are still walking up and down a week from now, you may turn out to be right.
Regardless, I imagine each of us will be infinitely more likely to admit being wrong than "you know who". And we agree that K SHOULD be expanding as fast as possible right now.
One thing is for sure, all of this speculation went on last year. The rate of expansion of public terrain was like any other year, determined by the conditions during the prior weeks.
I have skied K Thanksgiving weekend when Caper was open by Saturday, and others when GN didn't get below the Snowdon Quad. If Caper isn't open this year, it will be pretty easy to speculate it was because of the WC prep. It would also probably be wrong.
2014 - "A South Ridge trail is Pipe Dream. A South Ridge lift shouldn't be."
2019 - "A South Ridge trail is Pipe Dream. A South Ridge lift (operating midweek) shouldn't be."
2023 - Killington announces that the South Ridge lift will run five days a week.
2024 - Killington lied.