Testing Snowmaking for Winter 13/14!

We are testing snowmaking guns! For all you snowmaking geeks the gun in the foreground is running at a 2-1 air/water ratio and the one in the back ground is running at a 4-1 air to water ratio. That means from an efficiency stand point the new gun that we are testing (the one in the foreground) uses half as much energy as our current gun in the background. What does that mean for snowmaking? If we are using half as much air we can run twice as many guns. Now we will be limited by our water pumping capacity and not our air compressing capacity. We are not going to run out and change all of our guns over in 1 season, but the technology looks promising and we hope to have a few more of these proto-type guns to operate throughout the winter next year.

What else are we working on? We are working on doing all of our normal repairs and maintenance work and getting the snowmaking system ready for start up in the fall. That includes things like guns checked, hoses matched, quick connectors repaired etc. Beyond that it is time for us to go skiing everyday to enjoy the 4 feet of snow that we have on the mountain. See you in 200 days for snowmaking start up!

–Jim

Beautiful day on the mountain!

What a day to be on the mountain! The conditions are beyond fantastic with a mountain full of perfectly groomed corduroy to start the day. The grooming team did a superb job last night and their hard work shows. In addition to the great conditions the sun is shining bright and the temperature is perfect – you really couldn’t ask for a better day! It looks like we have another day like today in store for us on Friday – get out here and enjoy it!

~Brian

Perfect corduroy laid down by the groomers!

Not a bad view!

The snowmakers tried to rattle the groomers with their goal of 3 to 5 feet last week but with the talent in the grooming department we met their challenge. Grooming and snowmaking have their own separate challenges that make our shift (3rd shift from 11 pm – 9 am) interesting. During a week like last week, when snowmaking is running 180 guns it provides a challenge for everybody but it also makes it fun. When the piles are so big that you are as high as the light on the light pole (like I was on Foxes last week, 35 feet off the ground) you know that snowmaking is doing the right things. Even though we like to rib each other, we really are one big team. Snowmaking’s job is to make the snow, as much as they can, and our job is to get the mountain groomed and ready for skiing/riding by 9 am. When snowmaking is doing their thing it is even more important for us to be in sync with the timing of turning guns off and getting the piles pushed out so that we can put down the corduroy and let it set for opening. Remember Jiminy has night skiing so our time to groom most of the mountain is 10 pm – 9 am, many mountains close at 4 pm giving them more time to catch up. It is also important for us to push those big piles out so that the snow has more hang time and they can make the best quality snow. In the grooming department we have a motto that snowmakers and their snow fear us. Now that the recent snowmaking campaign is over, the grooming department can fine tune the snow on the trails, and the snowmakers will get a week off and our nights will be quieter. But

Heading back to the shop after a long night of work!

when the temperatures drop next week, we hope they come back and bring out the big guns again because we love it.
-Bob Barrett, 3rd Shift Grooming

Early morning snowmaking, 1.25.13

It is 8:45 on Saturday morning, January 26^th and I just took a tour of every trail on the mountain on a snowmobile.  It was a sight to behold, as the Mountain is in near perfect condition all because of spectacular Snowmaking efforts and fabulous grooming.  This is my 44^th winter at Jiminy and never have we accomplished so much in just 4 1/2 days.

Here is what happened:

Team Snowmageddon started up Snowmaking on Monday the 21^st at 1pm and made snow around the clock until 4 am this morning.  Led by Jim Van Dyke, Jim Mucci and Supervisors  Mark Loehr, Brad Mason and Josh Ruprecht and an incredible Team of guys and one girl they managed to put 20 million gallons of water, over 32 trails.  It took our base depth to 3 – 5 feet, no exaggeration.  It protected the Mountain for skiing which should take us into April, based on historical weather.

The Team started up 379 different guns during the past week.  It can be risky making snow in sub-zero temperatures, but it was an opportunity we couldn’t pass up.

Morning written planning sessions paid off, so everyone had a roadmap for the ensuing 24 hours.  They nailed it every day.

4 to 5 trails a day were closed for 24 hour Snowmaking and the Groomers struggled to keep up with the massive piles building everywhere.  However, due to the vast experience of Bruce Staples’ Team of experienced Groomers, the Mountain is just plain unbelievable this morning.  (They only whined a couple times about too much snow.)

I am really proud of our accomplishments this past week and wanted to share what I saw this morning and how the Mountain got in such beautiful condition.  I am now going out the door to enjoy the packed powder conditions we created this week.

Brian

Snowmaking loves cold weather, 1.24.13

3 to 5 FEET – How are we doing? Mother Nature, the snowmakers and the groomers are all awesome and we are within 36 hours of reaching our goal. Snowmaking is planned to be shut down by 8 am Saturday morning and we will have reached 100% of our goal. The latest victims of 3-5 feet of snow are Upper & Lower Fox, North Glade, West Way, the back chute, Upper Slingshot, 360, 180, Winding Brook, Upper Whirlaway, Lower Exhibition, Exhibition East and Jericho. As you know the weather has been brutal with sub zero wind chills at night and a few hardy skiers during the day (we salute you!). The groomers are doing 2 shifts a day just trying to keep up. Some trails are groomed 2 times in a shift just to  manage the 10 and 15 foot piles that each gun is producing. The plan is that we have enough snow on the mountain to handle just about whatever Mother Nature may throw at us. I am not saying that snowmaking is over, during the month of February we typically make snow on a more selective and limited basis. For example, instead of going around the clock for a week straight, we would only make snow during the coldest part of the day such as 10 pm – 6 am and make snow on 1 or 2 trails instead of 20.

You have been reading the snowmaking side of Snowmageddon, I am going to go ask one of the groomers if he would like to share their side of the story. Stay tuned!

–Jim

Snowmaking on Ace 1.22.13

3 to 5 FEET (36”-60”) of snow! That is the goal for every trail that we make snow on, 3’-5’ of base by the end of this stint. Widow White’s Peak is closed for snowmaking along with Upper & Lower Whitetail, Riptide and Willie’s Gulch through Wednesday (re-opening Thursday). At these temperatures the guns are producing inches of snow in minutes and feet in hours. You can stand there and watch the pile grow. The snow is nice and dry so the groomers just love moving these piles around.

The plan for tonight is to close Left Bank

Ace of Spades 1.22.13

a little early to allow us 12 hours of heavy snowmaking on the upper and middle sections of the trail. Wednesday afternoon we will give Widow’s and Upper & Lower Whitetail to the groomers so they can move whatever snow they need to, to provide a superb surface for skiing and riding on Thursday. We will move into Winding Brook, Upper Whirlaway, Lower Exhibition, Upper Fox, Lower Fox, North Glade, Outback and Cutter on Wednesday through Friday giving them the goal of 3’-5’ of base. During this entire period, we are re-surfacing and top dressing all of the day and night skiing trails. We are also hammering Ace of Spades throughout this stint the give Coyote Ridge as much as snow as it has ever had.

The weatherman is calling for it to stay cold through the week, warming up (mid 20s ) over the weekend and then moderating after that with 2 chances of snow during this period. Once this stint is over we will have a significant base on the mountain and we will continue to re-surface more specific areas as needed.

–Jim

Snowmaking on Raccoon’s Den 1.18.13

View of snowmaking on the steeps, taken in Alex’s Park. 1.18.13

Baby, it’s cold outside! And we love it! Last night we made the groomers cry “Uncle” because they couldn’t keep up we were making so much snow. We were converting over 4,300 gallons of water a minute to that nice white fluffy stuff we all love to play in. As we speak, we are hammering Upper & Lower Whitetail, Jericho, Ace of Spades and Winding Brook running every gun possible on those trails while they are closed for skiing and riding. Those trails will re-open on Saturday with more base and a renewed packed powder surface. After night skiing tonight we will hit the remaining trails with as much as hardware as we can muster to take advantage of these awesome snowmaking temperatures. In order to provide the best experience possible we are shutting down our Snowmageddon operation at 6 am, in time for the groomers to be able to catch up and provide awesome skiing and riding for you this 3 day weekend. Great snowmaking weather continues and on Monday we will start back up for another week  concentrating on Widow White’s Peak for 2 days then 3 days on the rest of the mountain. I don’t know what will happen after that, we will just have to wait and see!

–Jim

These guys enjoyed the spring-like weather this weekend but we are ready for the return of winter!

Is the January thaw over yet?! After a tour of the hill this morning at 48 degrees and heavy fog we will once again be trying to make snow at every opportunity, even if it is only for a couple of hours. Most of the areas where we had stockpiled 10-15 feet of snow has now been reduced by 80% from spreading it out across the trails. The weatherman says by the end of the week winter will return and we will be back to ‘round the clock snowmaking, building base, stockpiling snow and re-surfacing trails. We’ve all had 2-4 days off which was a nice break but we are tired of being inside and we are ready to go back at it with a vengeance. There is a slight chance of Mother Nature giving us a dusting on Thursday and then we have perfect snowmaking conditions over the weekend when we will make snow from 4 pm on each night. Looking forward to the return of winter!

–Jim

Snowmaking on Ace Of Spades/Coyote Ridge

Ah, the life of a snowmaker! The weatherman said on Sunday that we would have 2 days of snowmaking on Sunday night and Monday night with the lure of time off after that. But he was wrong! Monday night was a bust, just not cold enough. Now it is Tuesday night and Wednesday night for snowmaking. We have closed Widow White’s Peak until Thursday for snowmaking and snow curing as well as Outback and John Hancock. We will also close Upper & Lower Whitetail beginning tonight and hammer them overnight. We want to get as much snow in these areas as possible before the warm up. However that is not to say we don’t have a ton of snow on the mountain. All the trails we make snow on, now have 4-5 feet of base on them. We need that base depth to help the groomers re-surface the trails and to get us to April! This warm up that is coming lasts about a week and has warm weather and rain at various times. Maybe we are getting our January thaw. The next snowmaking start up is forecasted to begin towards the end of next week with cold weather after that.
So I mentioned snow curing, what is that? Snow cure is man made snow that is left untouched by the groomers. The result of letting that snow “cure” is a dryer, more powder like snow once the groomers do spread it out and till it. Dryer snow = a better product. We are going to allow our snow to cure for approximately 1 day before the groomers go in and work their magic. This makes the groomers happy too (although we like to make them work hard) this product is actually easier for them to work with and provides a better surface for the skiers.
So remember those personal plans we were making for our time off? Guess we better change them and maybe they can be re-scheduled for next week while it is warm. Will the weatherman be right about this warm up….? Or will it be something else? I guess we will just have to wait and see!

–Jim

Snowmaker hard at work on Lower Exhibition, 1/4/13

138 guns, 6,000 feet of air and 3500 gallons a minute. What do you get? A snowmaking system efficiency of 1.8 to 1. What does that mean? For every 1 gallon of water converted into snow we use 1.8 cubic feet of air. Our normal system efficiency is twice that at 3.6 cubic feet of air per 1 gallon of water. That translates to a savings of electricity close to $100 per hour. A surprising outcome was that the snow quality below 20 degrees was truly amazing in that the snow was so dry that you could not even create a snowball. As with all good experimenters, we are going to re-create our experiment each time the temperature drops below 20 degrees.

We are currently making snow on 4 closed trails (Wild Turkey, Jericho, Upper & Lower Fox) until tomorrow morning because the weather is warming up for a day. The snowmakers will get a day of rest on Saturday with the next start up scheduled after 4 pm on Sunday for a quick 48 hour blast. For that stint we will be making snow on Panorama, Nor’easter, Easy Does It, Outback and John Hancock. The goal is to have 5 feet of base on every trail. And then it looks like the snowmaking system will be down for about 5 days as the temperatures moderate, is this our January thaw?? So with a day off, this snowmaker is going skiing tomorrow!

–Jim