Ride Delaware ?

Slater may hate, but I know Zach has high praise for Elk!!!

Elk groupie for life. Haters gonna hate. Don't buy the hype.

Looks like the guns are back on. Can't really tell from the webcams, but it looks like Lazy is lit up as well as Home Stretch. They must feel pretty confident with their depths on Main Street since most of those guns are off.

Last year was one of the first years since Win has owned the mountain that they were able to open t2b on opening day. This year they opened t2b with Jester and Organgrinder. We did some training on it today. The rain really softened things up early on. Everything locked up tight starting around 2. I just heard about the gondola. That's where the mountain ops headquarters is right now. It would be nice to have a t2b lift, but the current setup isn't bad.

I haven't really had the chance to get out there to free ride yet. I have mostly ridden during training so it's been limited. We are t2b with 2 routes with 2 more possibly opening as early as tomorrow depending on what they do with snowmaking. I'm hoping to make it out for some fun runs Friday-Sun.

Wtf?

Wtf?

Rain stopped up here in the MRV around 12:30. After about a 2 hour lull in weather, it started sleeting at mid mountain and was snow at the top. Temps dropped into the upper teens up top. Things locked up fast. Snow is coming down at a good clip now, but it's accompanied by heavy winds.

I'd love to own the place. Serious discounts for PASRs, woods open, and possibly a HSQ for the main base area. So many possibilities. I'm also about customer service, so I would change the website, get a social media presence, and shake hands. As for the reach around? It ain't gonna shake itself. If they do a discount, it will likely be full price with a half price voucher for later in the season. That was the MO in past years, but it hasn't been done lately.

You guys know this better, but with this production, any shot at a surprise t2b opening so you guys can have your tinnies in the lower lot?

Depends on where they are and how they buy their electricity too. In ME, ski resorts buy their energy in bulk. SR would buy a chunk of Kilowatt hours first thing in the season at X rate and then use it throughout the season. Often times, they would overbuy energy and then sell it back to the electric company at a higher rate during peak demand seasons such as Christmas. SR and SL jointly employ a person to manage their electric usage throughout the season. They said that they were able to pay for almost a month worth of snowmaking by just selling energy back during peak demand. In Vermont on the other hand, most electric companies will not sell in bulk and often sell electric on an as used basis. That's why many resorts (Sugarbush) have much tighter budgets and are more conservative with making snow only at max production. Other resorts like Killington circumvent that by using diesel generators to power their snowmaking. Almost all primary lift drives are powered by electric off the grid with diesel backups.

I posted my mistake in the other thread. When I wrote that post the guns weren't on Main Street. They were apparently on the training hill.

Agreed. I worked in Maine last year and am now at Sugarbush, and nearly every resort north of PA makes snow without lights. Many of them (Hunter, SR, and KMart) are snowmaking powerhouses and they fare just one without it. It really is an additional expense that really isn't necessary. Is it a nice luxury to have to make it easier on your employees? Yes. Do the costs outweigh the benefits? That's personal opinion for each resort, but I highly doubt it.

My bad, no guns were on Main Street at the time of my post. Shouldn't be long now. It's going to be a sweet opening day for you guys.

Boulder has the snow guns back on already. Blue hadn't turned them back on as of 5 minutes ago. Microclimate. In all seriousness though, the cold weather is working it's way south. Should be only a matter of minutes now.

Most likely short sighted. Most water is either from a pump or a stream and is not filtered like drinking water. Could it eventually be used for drinking if it is filtered? Yes. Is it actual drinking water when it's being blown? No.

It's looking like GSS could be put on the spot. His anti ski season charades quieted. Temps look good next week!!! An opening in November? Say it is so!!!

Back to the topic at hand. Temps look really good for Boulder starting Saturday night. Should be able to open several more trails before T-Day.

Models look to be coming into agreement. Hopefully this track continues. Could be upwards of a foot in some places. Hopefully some of you will be able to take advantage of it at Boulder since they may be the only show in PA. The accompanying cold shot starting on Saturday night should also being lots of good snowmaking temps.

If I were in DE, I would come up for the day and then stay with some friends. Unfortunately/Fortunately, I'll still be training, so I probably won't make it.

The opening day setup they are advertising has been the normal opening day setup in years past correct?

I buy that. It's incredible to think that a Catskills mountain went until May 5th. That's what Sugarbush posted last season. I started this sport too late.

Wasn't the hay day for most New England mountains in the late 70s through the mid 80s? I know that some are slowly getting back to those numbers (Sugarbush/Sunday River), but there are a lot less resorts than there are now. Even with the year they had last year (estimated 800k + skier visits), Killington is still substantially off their all time high of 1.2 million in the 80s...

Thank you for that little bit of poetic justice. You manage to get yourself banned from internet message boards. Really? If they want to ban me for being a retard fine. At least it wasn't because I want to be a dick 24/7. Nah mean?

DMC? They have struggled to open/lacked the will to open on Thanksgiving the past couple years. They could have half the mountain open by Thanksgiving with the estimated temps early next week.