Reasons WHY resorts are NOT AT 100%

ciscokid

With all the cold weather over the last 10 days or so I am wondering why resorts are not 100 percent of trails/ skiable acreage open.

I know for instance tram line at Cannon has huge boulders requiring several feet of natural. I have ridden it a few times to observe the requirements.

Which areas are not living up to their full potential based on their ability to make snow in your opinion and which have exceeded and excelled?

newman

Bouquet MA is reporting only 9 of 23 and didn't open until 12-21 of this year. I don't know why. That's way behind for them. While Butternut, Jiminy, and Catamount are hammering away.

lotsoskiing

For many non-100%-snowmaking areas not a lot of natural snow. If they have trails/glades with lots of rocks, etc to cover, they may still need a storm or two. 

joshua_segal

Part of the problem is that in modern times, a lot of areas won't even open trails that would have not only have been  open, but would have been considered great skiing in a bygone era.

lotsoskiing

joshua_segal said:

Part of the problem is that in modern times, a lot of areas won't even open trails that would have not only have been  open, but would have been considered great skiing in a bygone era.

Or that Mad River opens now...

bmwskier

Staffing plays a role as well. Areas bring on staff based on an average. If an area, on average, spins 60% of the lifts during Xmas, then that's what they'll have in the pipeline to operate, with a few on call in case of extremes. 

NJSnowmaker

A lot of the smaller areas in the NE are running into a water supply issue. We had a very dry fall that cut into the snowmaking for these areas

DrJeff

Additionally some areas, with the COLD, if they rely a bunch of electricity vs diesel for the operation of their air compressors and/or water pumps, are often at the mercy of electric company restrictions about when they can and can't run full out and signicantly add to thru power draw!!!

NewEnglandSkier13

There is also still a crust hidden beneath half a foot of powder which is preventing trails from opening at some areas.

joshua_segal

NewEnglandSkier13 said:

There is also still a crust hidden beneath half a foot of powder which is preventing trails from opening at some areas.

At most of the busier areas, traffic has long since broken up that crust on trails not touched by groomers, but it's certainly an issue at some of the smaller areas.

bousquet19

Timberline WV seems way behind capacity.  

They opened a week later than other Mid-Atlantic resorts and were still advertising (at the very top of their web page and Facebook page) for all sorts of employees as of the beginning of Christmas Week.  Seems to be a reluctance to make the up-front investments to respond to opportunities and needs before Christmas.

Woody

mtsnow123

Riding Mount Snow the past 5 days, the only day with reasonable conditions on groomed runs was Saturday. The temperature finally lifted above 0 degrees. By 3 PM yesterday, most areas that were wind prone and a huge sheet of ice on it. Natural trails were in better shape than manmade snow trails IMO.

marcski

joshua_segal said:

Part of the problem is that in modern times, a lot of areas won't even open trails that would have not only have been  open, but would have been considered great skiing in a bygone era.

Come to Plattekill. We were skiing delicious trails all last week and weekend that were not ahem, officially opened...





I believe it's usually water or lack thereof that will limit snowmaking even in optimal weather conditions that we've been having the last couple of weeks. 

newpylong

Energy prices for some are high, water is an issue, but more importantly, it is dangerous depending on the system or specific lines to make snow with temperatures as low as they have been.