KillingtonZone.com

Snowmakers Spotted at Killington Resort

POSTED BY KILLINGTON ON OCTOBER 7, 2011

Amidst the vibrant red, orange and yellow leaves of fall foliage, snowmakers have been spotted at Killington Resort preparing for the upcoming winter season.

With temperatures continuing to fall, snowmakers have put our low-energy snow guns in position with hoses stockpiled and ready to make snow. Once Mother Nature gives us the “okay”, we’ll fire up the snow guns and begin to coat the North Ridge area trails with snow. Thanks to the Peak Walkway, we’ll be making early season turns on Killington Peak before you know it.

So, dust off your winter gear, get your skis and snowboard tuned and waxed because once Mother Nature and our dedicated snowmakers give us the thumbs up, we’ll be making turns!

I thought temperatures were going up for the next few days.

Get back to us in three weeks when it'll be a story.

Considering the snowshed pond is only 1/10th filled and they"re working on the intake pipe from Woodward I don't see an opening for K until second or third week in Nov

Big Bob wrote:I thought temperatures were going up for the next few days.

They are. This is just a PR thing. But it is interesting that they are conveying the message that the guns are in place and ready, that the walkway is there to allow them to open as early as possible and that they are willing to blow snow as soon as temps allow for it. This sounds more like the SR attitude than Powdr's attitude. We shall see.

shortski wrote:Considering the snowshed pond is only 1/10th filled and they"re working on the intake pipe from Woodward I don't see an opening for K until second or third week in Nov

Doubt it. Things get done fast. They know they can't make snow for the next 7-10 days. They have time to fix what they need to fix between now and the end of this month and that seems to be the time frame when things could get better temperature wise for blowing snow.

I take this insider post to be a positive sign. Why talk about the guns being in place and snowmakers being ready to make snow as soon as they can and us making turns before we know it if you're not planning to blow snow once temperatures allow for it? If they don't follow up on what they promise this will be another fiasco, and they probably know by now they don't need more drama.

skiersleft wrote:

shortski wrote:Considering the snowshed pond is only 1/10th filled and they"re working on the intake pipe from Woodward I don't see an opening for K until second or third week in Nov

Doubt it. Things get done fast. They know they can't make snow for the next 7-10 days. They have time to fix what they need to fix between now and the end of this month and that seems to be the time frame when things could get better temperature wise for blowing snow.

I take this insider post to be a positive sign. Why talk about the guns being in place and snowmakers being ready to make snow as soon as they can and us making turns before we know it if you're not planning to blow snow once temperatures allow for it? If they don't follow up on what they promise this will be another fiasco, and they probably know by now they don't need more drama.

YEs sir!!!!

PWDR has made a sport out of rattling the 'snow guns are in place' mantra in October ever since they got on the scene. Historically, it had nothing to do with the opening date. Remember the year (2 years ago?) they installed the tower mounted fan gun on Mousetrap? The opening was delayed through the first cold snap when they could have otherwise opened and (had the snow for it) because they were still trenching electricity to the fan gun. Then they had to wait until the next cold snap to blow lower bunny to open.

After Irene, the number of issues to resolve prior to opening must make the fan gun look like the good ol' days.

skiersleft wrote: I take this insider post to be a positive sign. Why talk about the guns being in place and snowmakers being ready to make snow as soon as they can and us making turns before we know it if you're not planning to blow snow once temperatures allow for it? If they don't follow up on what they promise this will be another fiasco, and they probably know by now they don't need more drama.

I have this bridge for you to invest in. It has a few demonstrators on it at the moment, but I'll deal with that prior to closing. There is an excellent traffic flow, and you could achieve an excellent return by simple installing tolls. Please contact me at once for this excellent opportunity.

Mister Moose wrote:PWDR has made a sport out of rattling the 'snow guns are in place' mantra in October ever since they got on the scene. Historically, it had nothing to do with the opening date. Remember the year (2 years ago?) they installed the tower mounted fan gun on Mousetrap? The opening was delayed through the first cold snap when they could have otherwise opened and (had the snow for it) because they were still trenching electricity to the fan gun. Then they had to wait until the next cold snap to blow lower bunny to open.

After Irene, the number of issues to resolve prior to opening must make the fan gun look like the good ol' days.

skiersleft wrote: I take this insider post to be a positive sign. Why talk about the guns being in place and snowmakers being ready to make snow as soon as they can and us making turns before we know it if you're not planning to blow snow once temperatures allow for it? If they don't follow up on what they promise this will be another fiasco, and they probably know by now they don't need more drama.

I have this bridge for you to invest in. It has a few demonstrators on it at the moment, but I'll deal with that prior to closing. There is an excellent traffic flow, and you could achieve an excellent return by simple installing tolls. Please contact me at once for this excellent opportunity.

They have the walkway now, so that for me is a new beginning. The top to bottom setup wasn't easy to deal with. The walkway makes things much easier. Last year they were rushing it to completion and didn't know whether opening early would be a good idea. They sold a lot of day tickets and they seemed to be very happy about how things turned out.

With a year with the walkway under their belt and the knowledge that opening early makes money for them, there are good reasons for treating this year differently.

Of course, you may be right, but I hope you're not. And fortunately, as you conceded recently in a different thread, you're often wrong. I hope for all of our sakes that you're wrong about this as well.

skiersleft wrote:

Mister Moose wrote:PWDR has made a sport out of rattling the 'snow guns are in place' mantra in October ever since they got on the scene. Historically, it had nothing to do with the opening date. Remember the year (2 years ago?) they installed the tower mounted fan gun on Mousetrap? The opening was delayed through the first cold snap when they could have otherwise opened and (had the snow for it) because they were still trenching electricity to the fan gun. Then they had to wait until the next cold snap to blow lower bunny to open.

After Irene, the number of issues to resolve prior to opening must make the fan gun look like the good ol' days.

skiersleft wrote: I take this insider post to be a positive sign. Why talk about the guns being in place and snowmakers being ready to make snow as soon as they can and us making turns before we know it if you're not planning to blow snow once temperatures allow for it? If they don't follow up on what they promise this will be another fiasco, and they probably know by now they don't need more drama.

I have this bridge for you to invest in. It has a few demonstrators on it at the moment, but I'll deal with that prior to closing. There is an excellent traffic flow, and you could achieve an excellent return by simple installing tolls. Please contact me at once for this excellent opportunity.

They have the walkway now, so that for me is a new beginning. The top to bottom setup wasn't easy to deal with. The walkway makes things much easier. Last year they were rushing it to completion and didn't know whether opening early would be a good idea. They sold a lot of day tickets and they seemed to be very happy about how things turned out.

With a year with the walkway under their belt and the knowledge that opening early makes money for them, there are good reasons for treating this year differently.

Of course, you may be right, but I hope you're not. And fortunately, as you conceded recently in a different thread, you're often wrong. I hope for all of our sakes that you're wrong about this as well.

I will stake my accuracy rate against WG's accuracy rate at any time.

Mister Moose wrote:

skiersleft wrote:

Mister Moose wrote:PWDR has made a sport out of rattling the 'snow guns are in place' mantra in October ever since they got on the scene. Historically, it had nothing to do with the opening date. Remember the year (2 years ago?) they installed the tower mounted fan gun on Mousetrap? The opening was delayed through the first cold snap when they could have otherwise opened and (had the snow for it) because they were still trenching electricity to the fan gun. Then they had to wait until the next cold snap to blow lower bunny to open.

After Irene, the number of issues to resolve prior to opening must make the fan gun look like the good ol' days.

skiersleft wrote: I take this insider post to be a positive sign. Why talk about the guns being in place and snowmakers being ready to make snow as soon as they can and us making turns before we know it if you're not planning to blow snow once temperatures allow for it? If they don't follow up on what they promise this will be another fiasco, and they probably know by now they don't need more drama.

I have this bridge for you to invest in. It has a few demonstrators on it at the moment, but I'll deal with that prior to closing. There is an excellent traffic flow, and you could achieve an excellent return by simple installing tolls. Please contact me at once for this excellent opportunity.

They have the walkway now, so that for me is a new beginning. The top to bottom setup wasn't easy to deal with. The walkway makes things much easier. Last year they were rushing it to completion and didn't know whether opening early would be a good idea. They sold a lot of day tickets and they seemed to be very happy about how things turned out.

With a year with the walkway under their belt and the knowledge that opening early makes money for them, there are good reasons for treating this year differently.

Of course, you may be right, but I hope you're not. And fortunately, as you conceded recently in a different thread, you're often wrong. I hope for all of our sakes that you're wrong about this as well.

I will stake my accuracy rate against WG's accuracy rate at any time.

Touché.

You always keep WG honest. Before the beginning of the season, why don't we come up with an objective way of assessing WG's forecasting performance. How close in terms of inches of snow does the forecast need to be? How close in terms of time period? More points for predicting the event earlier, I assume. Suggestions?

From what Shortski stated it sounds like their are now 2 problems, lack of cold temps and when will they have a water source. I guess I will be driving east again for early seson turns, but only time will tell...

No water no snowmaking for you

FEMA brought in all that bottled water, cant they use that to make snow?

I suppose we'll know much more in the next 2 weeks. If we see no snowmaking by the weekend of the 22nd, there is definitely something wrong and they are holding off because operations would hinder or prohibit repairs on a major component section. They need to have full output capability in the Killington basin side by mid November, a week before Thanksgiving, or they are really in trouble. If they can't pump the water and air to run 200+ snowguns between mid November and Christmas, they won't be able to expand like they need to for the Christmas holiday.

I'm optimistic. There's a big snowmaking pond at Bear and they would have no problem pumping water from there up to glades area to get open, if the pipes and pump houses needed are intact. I'm sure the system is very flexible and redundant, even if certain areas are damaged and seeing ongoing repairs. They've stated numerous times that they are looking to be aggressive in opening this year, and if there were problems with that, they would probably let us know by now by declaring a later opening. It doesn't take much for them to say,"Due to damage caused by the flooding, we won't be open until _____"....so why wouldn't they?