skifreak

Yeah I make snow at home. I like to sled in it, lol but my friends like to come over and set up rails and jumps. We had about 1'-2' of snow over the weekend and had a lot of fun sledding and my friends rode rails and jumps. I have pics that I will post later.

Anytime, schif!

I don't know how much they made, but if they made enough like blue did then they shouldn't have a problem.

An HKD gun is the newest snowgun on the market today, that revolutionized the snowmaking industry. An HKD is more efficient econimically and in snow production compared to a fangun/conventional air/water gun. Here is a great explanation of how an HKD works. Its a video and loads quick if your on dial up like me. http://www.bluemountain.ca/winter_conditions_snowmaking.htm What are the advantages of an HKD? First off its mounted about 20' or 30' off the gound (depending on the tower they bought). Which allows the water to freeze more in return making better snow quality, its as close to it being natural as it gets. Next an HKD uses less compressed air. Your thinking so what? Well look at it this way. The old air/water guns use about 300 cfm or so of compressed air...thats a lot and its extremely loud. Now the HKD only uses 50cfm. Which in return allows them to run more guns, make more snow, better snow quality, and save on electricity. Electricity is a killer in snowmaking, those compressor use a ton of it and its expensive, so the less they use the better they will be at saving money. How does an HKD work? Well its just like an other snowgun but with some advantages. The only disadvantage to it is it cannot make snow at marginal temps. First its has two connections like an other gun for air and water. Depending on the model it may come equipped with a 5hp air compressor eliminating the need for air from a hydrant. Then it has a connection for the water. The water and air travel up the tower to the flanged head where it meets the noozles. For this I Will use SMI's Viking snow tower to explain. If I remember correctly the viking has 12 total nozzles on it. Six nozzles are the nucleation nozzles reffered to as "nuc" nozzles. This mean that both air/water go through these. The remaining six nozzles are bulk water nozzles meaning only water travel through them. The nuc noozles spray the air/water out while the bulk water noozles mix with the nuc's spray creating even more nuc which later turns into snow. Now, if I explain how its cost effective you will get confused because it has to do with the flow rates on the nozzles, but in lamens terms since only six nozzles with a low flow rate use compressed air (nuc nozzles) it only requires 50 cfm (this is because of the orfice, or hole size on the nozzles compared to one big hole) and because air isn't used on all the nozzles. Ok, so after the nuc and bulk water mix and create snow it has time to freeze longer since its high in the air about 20' or 30' compared to a foot or so off the gound which means it makes more "natural snow". Which is another drawback, snow gets carried away in the wind. Some models of an HKD, note HKD is a registered TM of Snow Economics, but an HKD is a tower bascially a tower gun with multiple nozzles, its just a bunch of patent issues. Anyway models like the Ratnik, are able to run airless at 10

Well, for shawnee that wetbulb doesn't really mean much. They have a lot of HKD guns and they require around 26

I think they will make it through the warmup. Its not supposed to be as bad as it originally was. I was looking at the 15 day last night and it looks like it warms up again around the 11th. But I didn't check it today so it could have changed. Yeah, they usually do the $15 tickets early in the season when they don't have much open. Ha, I thought I was the only freak who called the snowphones everyday, I guess I'm not alone.

Me, too. I wish my mom would ski then maybe I could get out more often

If they open Friday I will try and be there, if not deffinetly Saturday if they are open.

Tentative opening date for the 2005/2006 season for blue is posted on there homepage as this Friday December 2nd. I hope it stays this way. Site states with seven trails as well.

Nice, thats what its all about.

BigdaddyK, I was just looking on rsn.com and under the snow conditions for PA, it said that BB plans to open on December 17th. Hope this helps.

Spit it out Glen, we want to hear your expirence!

The lights were on last weekend when I went for new boots. If I were them I wouldn't start now because they wasted all the good days when the could have put down a lot to atleast havesome left after the warm streak. If they start now the warm streak will take most of it away, and thats just a waste of money.

I sense a riot coming on, lol. Anywho I think anyone that skis/snowboards is cool. I have no hate for boarders and I hope they have no hate for me.

Yeah, nice to see you back man.

No taking a spill on the flat part of Burma Road at blue is embarassing. It happened to me, for what ever reason my right ski just stopped dead in its tracts and the left kept on going forward. Needless to say I fell over and felt like an idiot.

LOL, my dad is obsessed with coke (thats the soda). He saw this guy wearing one and he says to me "You can put water in those?" I said yeah those are Camelbacks. He says "Wow I'm going to get one and put coke in it, that way I don't have to keep running to the car and spend out the @$$ in the lodge."

The seventh is a good day. I learned to ski on December 7th and a year before that on December 7th I got into a car accident in Whitehall.

Thats the only downside to the new snowmaking technology, they require a lower temp to operate at. Thats why even though the older air/water guns are less efficient and not very cost effective, they are able to make snow at marginal temps and even at above freezing temps if the humidity is low enough.

Nice pics, and once again I envy you, Sib!

Nice, I could pick ski999 out right away with the bright orange helmet. Thats how I'm going to identify '999 if I ever think I see him.

Your Crazy They aren't blowing thats what it looked like last night too. The forecast doesn't look good for anybody.

You see I told you Zack, lol. They didn't blow last evening.

Good work, Mark glad everything worked out for you.

I know I just got done looking at the long term forecast. I hope it changes for the best.