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snowmaking?


EAZY-Emuntz

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Okay everyone, here is the official Bear Creek word on snowmaking.

 

we are going to shoot for opening on 12/12, a Tuesday.

 

Thanks,

Mary

 

 

Thanks for the headsup, Mary! Is there a date you guys are shooting for to open that you may want to share? :)

 

Learn how to read! They are shotting for an opening on 12/12

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Okay everyone, here is the official Bear Creek word on snowmaking.

 

We will begin blowing snow tonight. If all goes well and Mother Nature cooperates, we are going to shoot for opening on 12/12, a Tuesday.

 

Thanks,

Mary

All i can say is thank you so much for clearing things up, I have been waiting for some concrete words for a while, this is so exciting!!!! I LOVE YOU :bow:bow:beer::cheers::cheers::bow::bow::chea: I know its a lot of smilies, but I am just so excited that when I will get home from work to see Bear creek blowing snow

Edited by petter369
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Okay everyone, here is the official Bear Creek word on snowmaking.

 

We will begin blowing snow tonight. If all goes well and Mother Nature cooperates, we are going to shoot for opening on 12/12, a Tuesday.

 

Thanks,

Mary

:rock if only it was saturday...is there any chance???

 

Tonight there should be good snowmaking weather for Bear Creek..Any of you guys coming to Blue this weekend?

me and a few buddies may head up on sunday if bear doesnt make a surprise weekend opening...

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a ski patroller i know said last year that they can make enuff snow to open in three days. I'm disappointed Bear isnt trying for this saturday.

 

 

Three DAYS. I don't know of any mountain that can open with only three NIGHTS of blowing. Three DAYS, on the other hand, means around the clock. There are a lot of ski areas around here that can open a couple of slopes in three days (w/around the clock blowing).

 

It has also been suggested that Bear (or other mountains) could open THE WHOLE MOUNTAIN in 3 days. That is a myth as well.

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Just to clarify, we can make enough snow to open with about 75 hours of snowmaking. But keep in mind, Bear Creek likes to open with at least 80-90% of the mountain ready, not just a few trails.

 

We have a total of 94 guns here, which is the more guns per acre than any other mountain in PA. This includes the 25 automated snow guns that are new for this season.

 

Thanks,

Mary

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How many acres is Bear Creek? For some reason I think Camelback has like 3-400 snow-guns and I think they have more guns per acre..

 

Bear Creek is 89 acres...Camelback is 156 acres..

 

Camelback has 1500 snow guns...

 

http://www.skicamelback.com/?nav=content_stats

 

Why do the Bear Creek operators always lie about stats???

Damn!!! this might be true although to be honest, who cares, maybe camelback is lying, maybe bear is lying. All i care about it how long its going to take before I get to go to bear. :chea:

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Well realize you aren't comparing the right numbers here. Camelback is counting every gun they have - which includes a lot of fixed mounted guns on the sides of trails. However when they run the snowmaking system Camelback can't run 1500 guns, they are only running a fraction of them. Killington was running something like 200 guns when they were trying to open. If Bear Creek has 94 guns, and runs say 80 of them at once (because some of the automated ones won't be on the trails they are working on), that is a good deal of snowmaking. However I would still say they are outgunned by other resorts. Look at Blue. There are so many fixed towers on Razors, and now on Sidewinder, at least 100 guns on each trail. If they run every single one of them, they are making more snow.

 

On top of that number of guns doesn't equal amount of snow, Mountain Creek uses 4 big guns to make the entire super pipe in about a week of snowmaking, maybe a bit more. That would take about 10 of the tripod mounted snowguns at least to equal it, they make a rediculous amount of snow.

 

About the most even statistic is how many gallons of water per hour are pumed through the guns, because air output is very dependent on type of guns and temperatures, and number of guns is inconsequential if you can't run them all.

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Bear Creek should open this weekend for the loyal passholders even just on two runs....then Bl;ue won't be so crowded :rofl:nana

 

loyal passholders only!

 

But for realio

 

Id go if you had a couple of jibs set up.

 

I dont need 80-90% open and 50ft tabletops on opening day.

 

Just riding and something to mess around on is enough

Edited by rideKINK156
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I want to clarify a few things. Mary meant to say that Bear Creek has the highest snowmaking density per acre in PA. By that we mean that we can produce more snow per acre over a given period of time than any other resort in PA.

 

Camelback uses a mix of air/water and fan guns. Both technologies are good but we choose to run all fan guns due to their relative efficiencies in marginal conditions. Comparing number of guns is misleading due to the flow and production each gun is capable of. An air/water gun produces far less snow per gun than a fan gun, necessitating a much larger fleet of guns to achieve the same snowmaking density.

 

The temperature is currently 30F and we will begin making snow in the next 2 hours. Given that the temperature has been so warm and we have received a fair amount of warm rain over the past 2 weeks, our water temperature is still relatively high.

 

Currently our water temperature sits at 48F which is on the high side for good production so we are waiting for the air to cool a bit to compensate for the high water temperature. Being a little patient allows us to make a higher quality snow, have better production and avoid blanketing the trails with a thick layer of slop that will only thaws your ground and comes back to haunt you in the end.

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