Larchmont

For archival purposes, here's a screenshot from today. Someone is working inside the new expanded bottom shack.

I know snowmakers at Blue and I've seen their system run, but I'm not employed there. I think you have me confused with someone else. Not sure about candysomething.

Yes - it's the section of trail from about where Valley Patrol used to be all the way over to the Tubing gate, including the liftlines for Challenge and Comet, which used to mostly be covered by a pair of older Areco guns and a Super Polecat over at the base of Frontier Alley. The two valley Arecos (~80 GPM maximum) got swapped for bigger TT10 fans (potentially 180+ GPM).

They replace the red guns that used to be in the horseshoe. These are maybe twice as big as the guns they replace.

Looks like they gain 3' of vertical on that peak!

Hard to say, but it could be the concrete pad or the control building too.

That's some *old* Arecos replaced. I believe that #1 in the picture and #2 at the Falls/Home Stretch/ Paradise/Razors merge have both been retired. The TT10 is a lot more gun than the Areco, also - it should be able to flow ~150 GPM or more, where the Areco could move maybe 80. Though the TT10 can also put a lot more snow on the Challenge gates...

They sure aren't staging parts for long. Per Facebook they're flying upper mountain towers in by helicopter on Tuesday.

Blue doesn't use diesel snowmaking equipment. They used to have some Hedco gear but it's all long gone now. Gallons per minute - the new guns max out around 45 GPM, fans are somewhere between ~70 and ~180 GPM depending on capacity and input pressure. The guns like on Paradise or Razors can do over 80 GPM. Blue can move a lot of water, there's almost always more water capacity. Air - you can work the math yourself, but there are nine 1000+ HP Centacs. If you ask nicely you can probably get the same tour I got and see for yourself - they're loud as hell.

Okay. So the two towers there used to pinch the trail a little bit, and it doesn't look like they'll gain much width on Come Around with the new alignment. It's not that big a deal and you've answered my question.

Should still be enough room to sneak from the top of Curzi's Widow Race Chute over to the remains of the T-bar line at least. Was that the inner or outer footer where the double used to cross Come Around? Will they be able to gain any skiable area there?

The red gun or the yellow gun? The new sticks were running about 7 or 8 gallons per minute, that fan was probably putting out around 30 GPM because day shift forgot to turn the settings back down. Or, possibly, the gun was broken - the red gun is likely to be replaced soon due to age.

Do you recall what the temperature was that day?

Blue has an absurd amount of firepower if it gets cold. Vista is weak because it's like 150' wide, not because they aren't willing to run guns. Upper Main Street is weak because Blue runs Lower Main first. Paradise takes about half their capacity, Home Stretch will use up around a fourth, and Coming Soon can run off basically an asthmatic hamster blowing into a straw with the leftovers going to Tubing, the Horseshoe, ski school, and the top part of Tut's Lane to link both lifts. Seriously, the whole of Half Off Fall takes less air than three guns on Paradise. I'd easily believe Blue could open with Paradise first. However. They have a lot fewer guns per hundred feet on Paradise than, say, Main Street. They may need more than 32 hours of cold weather to open that side of the hill (yes, they've gotten Lower Main open that fast) or they may open it but have to keep building depth there. They also might not get Went Recently open on day one - the guns there, like Burma, just aren't as productive in typical early season conditions as compared to the Paradise or Main Street models. Burma's opened really, really thin recently, and Burma doesn't have a steep section and it's narrower. Dreamweaver probably can't make opening day either, not if they also run Home Stretch, but they likely can run a few guns at thin spots to get a head start. If it breaks seriously cold - mid teens, say - or once Home Stretch is in decent shape, I expect we'll see Dreamweaver then Nightmare very soon after. That's the Upper Main Street equivalent. Everything else off that peak takes too much air to connect back to the lifts. Dark horse option - if it's really cold and the wind is favorable, Challenge -> Falls -> Home Stretch can run. If they go for it, that could be open after two days of around-the-clock temps below 22 degrees, plus grooming time. Blue does not mess around with making snow. Within the limits of their system, they run pretty much 100% until they hit "full depth" on every trail. The Comet peak has more automation than the opening day trails on the Main Street peak, and once they can get off Paradise they should be able to expand quickly, weather permitting.

Seconded - if they don't have the lift done in time they might stay away from Main Street/Burma, which would be different, but they'll still go for it if they get temps any time from November on.

Horseshoe is the section from the quad over past the old six pack and to the old first aid buildings - now, it's probably the loading areas for all three main lifts. I'm disappointed we aren't seeing more new snowguns - replacing nine fan guns is fine (and it looks like a lot of the old ones went to Tubing), but Blue's basically still on the Air Hog plan unlike Camelback. If Blue didn't have like 3x the air compressor power that Camelback does they'd never get anywhere. And seriously, putting the same guns on Shuttle as on Razors Edge Headwall? I figured we would see new guns to connect to the new lift this year. If Blue didn't lock in their lift order early they may be last in line to receive parts - and that might be pushed even later by supply chain trouble. AKA why pick one side to blame when it could be both? Anyone want a betting thread for which side of the hill opens first this year?

That's not their old blue telehandler or their new JLG telehandler - hopefully rental/contractor equipment on site means more steel is imminent.

There are a bunch of operational and logistical and political reasons to build the big lodge in the valley, and there's just about only two reasons to build it at the summit - the view, and Slopeside. Now, if Blue gets froggy about more on-prem lodging, I could absolutely imagine a tiny home "community" or a much smaller lodging facility springing up in the "water park" area where the old summit entrance was.

Yep, they're not often going to turn people away, paid parking or no. There's even the fields behind Tubing - those have been used on occasion. But fencing off one lot of paid premium parking right next to a brand new shiny six pack or a brand new hotel lodge (but they're reserved for our overnight guests!) feels exactly like what Camelback started their paid parking with.

I can imagine paid parking once they repave some of the Valley lot or, especially, if they expand the Valley lodge footprint even more and lose spaces in the convenient lots. There's corporate involved, you don't get something for nothing.

The big retaining wall and open space by Comet Lift was for a storage rail - they just never went back and added the rail itself. Neither current detach has a chair shed yet, but Ops really wishes they did some mornings.

They can't start Lower Main Street, Midway, Easy Out, Burma, Shuttle, and Home Stretch to reach the new lift and also run Come Around. There's not enough compressed air for that unless it's low teens or colder.

It's not like they don't have the snowmaking firepower to make it happen - but it might mean no Come Around on opening day.

Re: Blue lift install versus Magic install, somehow I doubt the lift engineering department at any major manufacturer would add two years into an installation by speccing the wrong sheave arrangements - where Magic got reamed by a third party engineer. Blue's done some interesting stuff before but unlike the summit lodge overhaul (millions over budget) or the new trail build (six years late) they aren't making it up and paying as they go.