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alan


Posts: 10768
Joined: Nov 1994
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27th Mar 2024
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Re: Snow making
Date Posted: 01.27hrs on Thu 23 Nov 06
Been on their website. Vertical of 800ft looks like similar size to the Lecht and 1500 snow guns. Though fan guns generally have a significantly higher capacity per cannon than air/water guns in terms of throughput - say 3x. Thats still about 500 fan guns vs the Lechts 16. Astonishing figures, mind it states avg snow fall is just 50" .

roga


Posts: 1123
Joined: Feb 2006
Re: Snow making
Date Posted: 08.13hrs on Thu 23 Nov 06
^ Good grief, and I was impressed by the Lecht having 17 or however many they now have!

alan


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27th Mar 2024
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Re: Snow making
Date Posted: 11.06hrs on Thu 23 Nov 06
Heavenly will be opening later today on entirely machine made snow. Check out the video for what a modern snowmaking system can do:

[www.skiheavenly.com]


roga


Posts: 1123
Joined: Feb 2006
Re: Snow making
Date Posted: 11.40hrs on Thu 23 Nov 06
^ impressive would be an understatement!

William


Posts: 523
Joined: Mar 2004
Last Visited: 08:32
12th Apr 2008
Re: Snow making
Date Posted: 12.22hrs on Fri 24 Nov 06
it's so frustrating that we have had consistent low temperatures in which base building could have been going on, to set us up for when our first big dump arrives.

Out of interest, has anybody worked out what sort of snow making system, (and how big) we could have had instead of spending the money on the funicular?

It's a hypothetical question, but would the resulting increase in skiers have earned more money for Cairngorm than funicular visitors?

stevomcd


Posts: 293
Joined: Nov 2005
Last Visited: 19:02
11th Nov 2010
Re: Snow making
Date Posted: 12.26hrs on Fri 24 Nov 06
William Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> it's so frustrating that we have had consistent
> low temperatures in which base building could have
> been going on, to set us up for when our first big
> dump arrives.
>
> Out of interest, has anybody worked out what sort
> of snow making system, (and how big) we could have
> had instead of spending the money on the
> funicular?
>
> It's a hypothetical question, but would the
> resulting increase in skiers have earned more
> money for Cairngorm than funicular visitors?



We could have put extensive snowmaking in at all 5 resorts for that money.

It probably wouldn't earn Cairngorm more than the funicular though (at least, not in terms of turnover!)


tim1mw


Posts: 700
Joined: Nov 2006
Re: Snow making
Date Posted: 21.15hrs on Sun 26 Nov 06
paisleyboarder Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Camelback in Tannersville, PA, started their
> snowmaking yesterday more than 1500 snow cannons
> linked with over 40 miles of pipe.

My girlfriend is currently living in New Jersey, haven't made it to Camelback, but went to another place nearby called Mountain Creek (http://www.mountaincreek.com/), which is fairly similar. They call it a mountain, but it's more of a wooded hillside. The place is owned by Intrawest who seem to be poring a lot of money into new development, there was a very impressive new base lodge being built when I was there. The day I went they were hosting a selection event for the US Olympic Snowboard team.

The snowmaking system is one of the most impressive and densest i've seen. As you can see from the attached picture (from jan 2006), the only snow was the stuff on the runs that came from the cannons. Went to Killington later in the week, a lot further north and much higher up, but even there they were heavily reliant on the snow cannons to get the runs open, so it just shows what you can do if you have the money. If Scotland had snowmaking half as good, the season would probably be sufficiently reliable to make it worth coming up more often, I live to far away to make it worth the effort unless things are looking very good.



Edited 2 times. Last edit at 21.24hrs Sun 26 Nov 06 by tim1mw.

Attachments: 100_1857.jpg (81kB)  
Big Sly


Posts: 504
Joined: Apr 2004
Last Visited: 13:52
31st May 2008
Re: Snow making
Date Posted: 10.39hrs on Mon 27 Nov 06
Wow, very impressive stuff from Heavenly. Does kind of make the case for snowmaking.

flugeryl


Posts: 2307
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11th Mar 2021
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Re: Snow making
Date Posted: 22.35hrs on Wed 29 Nov 06
lets see what Bob and Cairngorm have to say for themselves on the 9th Dec

paisleyboarder


Posts: 593
Joined: Nov 2005
Last Visited: 19:44
15th Feb 2018
Re: Snow making
Date Posted: 22.57hrs on Wed 29 Nov 06
Tim i was at both mountain creek and camelback in february 2001, when i was at mountain creek it was like being at glencoe, dull and raining,but it was a great day camelback was also good riding from 4pm till 10pm floodlights on music blasting out all over the mountain plus it was snowing very heavily, great conditions the park were also very good the halfpipe was perfect, young kids doing front flips and back flips off the kickers, plus both resorts make snow after the lifts close at night.

Attachments: wholecourse_1024-400x300.jpg (28kB)  
alan


Posts: 10768
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Last Visited: 17:02
27th Mar 2024
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Re: Snow making
Date Posted: 11.23hrs on Fri 1 Dec 06
Looking at the Webcams and AWS this morning. The base in the Top Basin is broken and patchy, but not completely gone. During November there has been what on the limited data available appears to have been several good windows for snowmaking and a few more marginal ones. Machine made snow tends to be more dense and thaw resistant, there could have been an even denser machine made base under the natural base.

We could have had great cover last weekend up top and decent ends to the middle runs, and this weekend still have the kind of cover we had last weekend up top if snow making was in place and in use. As well as having enough base to continue some snowsports, it's cold and dry this morning, not cold enough for vast snowmaking, but enough to to freshen up the surface on the likes of the Fairway.

Smoothing out the stop-start bursts would have not insignificant commercial advantages, but also having a base that meant the expected high level snow would go to depth building rather than trying to get a base started helps show that it would have an accumulative effect through the season.

Would it be cost effective, how much would it cost, how much snow could be made, in what time scale, how many skiers would we need to make a return on it? These questions can't be answered without detailed modelling which requires better and more extensive data. If the data backs up the more casual observations of recent seasons where there are periods that snow making could have made a very real difference, a very strong case could be made.

flugeryl


Posts: 2307
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11th Mar 2021
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Re: Snow making
Date Posted: 11.28hrs on Fri 1 Dec 06
it seems that the need to prove snow making is cost effective will be the stumbling block and delay...my fear is it becomes the permanent reason not to go with snow making

boarder


Posts: 374
Joined: Sep 2003
Last Visited: 05:25
29th Dec 2018
Re: Snow making
Date Posted: 13.51hrs on Fri 1 Dec 06
The lecht snapping up 8 more snow cannons shows that it must be cost effective to some degree.

How much of their revenue last winter was down to Snowmaking in December through January? With a more extensive snowmaking system the Lecht could have had the bulk of Scotland's Skiing customers in that 2 month period when snow was scarce. With snowmaking you are able to forecast your budget much better and create a steady income when people are booking holidays and weekends with confidence, knowing snow will be on the ground whatever.


WebCT_Guru


Posts: 674
Joined: Nov 2006
Last Visited: 14:32
21st Jan 2019
Re: Snow making
Date Posted: 15.09hrs on Fri 1 Dec 06
According to page 19 of the Ski Scotland Brochure that some of you are having obtaining, it stated that Glenshee has "Artificial snow-making covering 20,000m square"

boarder


Posts: 374
Joined: Sep 2003
Last Visited: 05:25
29th Dec 2018
Re: Snow making
Date Posted: 15.17hrs on Fri 1 Dec 06
Yeah that sounds about right?

142m x 141m would give you just over 20000m sq. Not a very big area at all really.

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