Tuesday, December 26, 2006

Snowmaking resumes tonight!

Just wanted to let you all know that we will be setting up the guns and blowing snow tonight, and into tomorrow. We're going to blow snow *whenever possible* throughout the week...so get ready! We will primarily be reblanketing our trails (Hunter One, Mossy Brook, etc), and I promise that the snow will look much better when we blow a bit.

As for the forecast, tomorrow (Wednesday) is going to be in the 30's, returning to more mild weather for Thursday and Friday. As an aside, while some of the snow around the very base is of a brown persuasion, I have heard people raving about great conditions...don't be put off by the weather off the slopes...the conditions are still pretty sweet!

Hope to see you soon, and again, happy holidays from Hunter Mountain! Remember to call the Snow Phone or check the website for more information throughout the day!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

As of Wednesday morning, your main site indicates that no snow has been blown (sigh)

We went to Hunter last weekend and although Saturday was not bad, by the time it got to Sunday afternoon, we felt that the snow had gotten sufficiently bad that we didn't even bother to ski on Monday and just went home.....except we visited Windham on the way and THEY somehow managed to blow a lot of snow, the trails that were open seemed to be in much better condition than Hunter's trails.

What's the scoop? Is it realistic to believe that the conditions will be better for the new year weekend?
I realize that we're all at the mercy of the lousy warm weather we've been having but enquiring minds are trying to figure out what to do this weekend :-)

Jessica said...

Let's start with explaining why we make snow when we make snow. Our snowmakers and groomers have been working here, some for as long as 20-25 years. They are snowmaking experts and know what they are doing. We get a lot of these e-mails, people telling us we should be blowing snow when, in reality, it's not going to help us. The guns will squirt water if the temperature is too warm or if there is too much humidity. The flakes may even fall, but as soon as they hit the ground they turn to water. A lot of this has to do with the mechanics of snow blowing. Some of it also has to do with money, unfortunately. While Windham and Belleayre may be able to blow in questionable weather, we do not have the same economic structure. So there are a lot of factors that go into it, and we are really being careful about when to blow snow. Windham's blowing more snow than us? That's good for them -- but realistically, we have 21 trails open, and they have 12. It's awesome that their conditions are good.

When I walked out of my house today there were huge snowflakes. The guns have been on all night, and will stay on today, and the groomers were out -- so the weather is nice today. Tomorrow and Friday, it's going to be a bit warmer. I was told yesterday that warmer temperatures will remain into mid-January, but we will do the best we can to bring everyone great conditions.

I hope I answered some of your questions/concerns.

Anonymous said...

I also left Hunter - Sunday morning, as conditions changed immensely. There were too many rocks which destroyed my newly conditioned skis. I was saddened to read that snow blowing has more to do with economic structure. I guess we all miss Izzy's willingness to make the most snow whenever possible. The more people that come to ski, the more $ the mtn makes. Skier's rationale: No snow making, rocky trails and limited skiing means no customers. I'm hoping that Hunter will blow more -

Jessica said...

We understand the dilemma. As I said, we are blowing snow. This season is difficult for every single ski resort in the northeast. We're doing the best we can.