for the 2012/13 Alpine Winter Snow Sports Season!
The Chronological Story Of How Season's Opening Is Built.
Chapter 1:
(Please Note: This page has been set out in 4 brief chapters
in order to accommodate the attachments which are limited
in the forum format. Thanks!)
At the time of this posting, we're only a few hours away from
the first lifts turning on Thursday morning to start off what
seems to be a very promising beginning to the brand new season.
We say "Very Promising" because in recent memory, maybe even
not so recent memory, we don't recall that Mountain Crews have
had such consistently favourable snowmaking conditions over such
a long period of time to blow in literally tons of snow over so much
terrain.
That's the point of our theme for this article...
"Some Assembly Required"...
(No, not that super-complicated Christmas Gift you wanted...)
... as it refers to all the days and weeks of work by Mountain Crews to
blow in acres and acres of some of the best snowmaking in the industry,
particularly when there has not been much in the way of natural snow.
This absolutely underscores the fact that Tremblant does not need a lot
of natural snow to produce very fine surface coverage and a great start
to the season as long as the temps are low enough to support the Snowmaking
Crews efforts, exactly the way we've had.
For those that have been following the action, we've all been watching
for almost 2 weeks as Tremblant has been running the snow guns,
primarily at night, but occasionally as temps have allowed, during the day's
also.
Tremblant published a very nice Facebook album back on Nov. 6th and at that
time seeing Mountain Crews churning out the white stuff came as a bit of a
surprise, a very welcome surprise, but for sure, earlier that we expected to
see it.
According to Tremblant.ca Official sources, the actual Snowmaking
Mountain Operations began on Nov. 4th, so these wonderful pic's
are looking wonderful because by the time they were taken, there was
already about 48 hours of intensive labour into the project.
Samples from Tremblant's Nov.6th 2012 Album.
- Screenshot Courtesy of www.tremblant.ca Facebook Album.
- 11.6.12.Summit.Snow.a.jpg (78.78 KiB) Viewed 3606 times
- Screenshot Courtesy of www.tremblant.ca Facebook Album.
- 11.6.12.Summit.Snowmaking.b.jpg (145.85 KiB) Viewed 3606 times
- Screenshot Courtesy of www.tremblant.ca Facebook Album.
- 11.6.12.Summit.Snowmaking.c.jpg (72.93 KiB) Viewed 3606 times
for the archive. Future Tremblant historians will hopefully have
a pretty good window into the way this seasons shaping up. We
think it is a fine start when you've got these kind of views, both above
and below, at this date, particularly when there's snowmaking all the
way to the South Side Resort Base.
Webcam Snap Shot from November 7th, 2012.
This is a very rare shot for this early date.
- Webcam Snap Shot Courtesy of www.tremblant.ca
- 11.7.12.South.Base.Snow.a.jpg (21.86 KiB) Viewed 3607 times
cold snap and there was every good reason for Crews to get a good
head start on trail prep.
One of the best parts of this weather model from back on the 7th
was the consistent forecast of overnight sub-zero temps. Not only
good for night-time snowmaking, but very good for retention because
keeping it freezing for most of each day worked out well in terms of
a net gain in covered terrain without much daytime loss.
Weather Network Screenshot from November 7th, 2012.
- Screenshot courtesy of The Weather Network.
- Screen Shot 2012-11-07 at 9.30.39 AM.png (207.84 KiB) Viewed 3606 times
and retention, is that Summit temps are on average around 4 to 5 degrees
Celsius cooler due to elevation, so whenever you see these weather models
showing South Base level values at plus a bit, it's very possible, even likely
that the Summit is still nicely sub-zero and in good shape to keep snow.
By the morning of the 8th, it was perfectly clear Crews were making
solid progress with coverage and volume.
Composite Webcam Snap Shot from November 8th, 2012.
- Webcam Snap Shots Courtesy of www.tremblant.ca
- Screen Shot 2012-11-08 at 8.34.56 AM.jpg (137.1 KiB) Viewed 3606 times
Crews were busy doing more than just snowmaking too, as there was
traffic that was obviously involved with other logistics necessary to get
the Mountain ready for opening.
Using Packer/Groomers to move utility bins around at the Summit.
Nov. 8th, 2012.
- Webcam Snap Shot Courtesy of www.tremblant.ca
- Screen Shot 2012-11-08 at 8.21.47 AM.png (266.33 KiB) Viewed 3606 times
"Thermal Blip" in temps, but we were not worried about that too
much mostly because there had been so much preceding cold
that the short heat exposure would not be significantly destructive,
especially given that the Summit looked like it would keep sub-zero
overnights at least.
Weather Network Screenshot from Nov. 9th, 2012.
- Screenshot courtesy of The Weather Network.
- Screen Shot 2012-11-09 at 10.03.17 AM.png (207.65 KiB) Viewed 3606 times
1) that there was no rain in the immediate forecast, and....
2) as far as solar energy being destructive, all the trails being worked
on, now had a nice cover of "Reflective White" blown snow on them,
a best case possible for bouncing off all the sun and keeping the already
chilled ground cold with a nice snowy insulation blanket.
The Forecasts turned out to be quite accurate and there was no
real trouble getting over the brief heat and back into solid cool.
Weather Network Screenshot from Nov. 11th, 2012.
- Screenshot courtesy of The Weather Network.
- Screen Shot 2012-11-12 at 8.27.21 AM.png (204.88 KiB) Viewed 3606 times
looking very good to ramp up Snowmaking.
Weather Network Screenshot from Nov. 13th, 2012.
- Screenshot courtesy of The Weather Network.
- Screen Shot 2012-11-13 at 10.32.48 AM.png (201.75 KiB) Viewed 3606 times
- Screen Shot 2012-11-13 at 10.45.40 AM.jpg (172.47 KiB) Viewed 3606 times
very little effect and excellent snow retention. Evidently, the risks
associated with an early commitment to snowmaking paid off
quite nicely and from November 12th forward, progress has steadily
moved ahead at a good speed....
We'll take a look at that, following shortly, here below as a Reply
to this topic.
Back at 'ya later today with the rest of the story....
.