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Greetings to Tremblant Fans Worldwide as we get ready
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. We began to take webcam snap shots back on November 7th
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. Back at that time, we were right in the middle of a nice early
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. Another factor in favour of particularly upper range and Summit snowmaking
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.
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. By Nov 9th, we knew we were going to be seeing a short
"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. Two other reasons we were not too worried were:

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. Especially good for Snowmaking, steady sub-zero nights are
looking very good to ramp up Snowmaking.

Weather Network Screenshot from Nov. 13th, 2012. Tremblant's Summit, November 13th, 2012 Even after a wee heat-shot, the Summit of Tremblant showed
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....


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"Some Assembly Required" Preliminary 2012/13 Snow Report

Chapter 2

So then, backing up a couple of hours from the last pic above....

November 13th was forecasted to be back down into sub-zero snowmaking temps
and we were not disappointed as the early morning Summit webcam
showed a nice frosty coating up there, more than enough to know that
Mountain Crews would be back on track in very short order....
The real surprise was the second webcam snap shot we took over at the North Base
where it was clearly evident that the overnight cold had worked it's way right down to
the base level there.

While we did not think that it was quite at the point that it would be "Sticking",
non-the-less, it's always encouraging to see this kind of sign so early. If
nothing else, it signifies a sooner than might be expected chilling of the
grounds surface there, keeping in mind that if the ground had still been
retaining any heat at this stage, this frosty appearance would not occur.
The sun rose on the 14th showing us a bright, crisp morning with
an excellent recovery in Summit Snowmaking production.


While the return to more stable overnight sub-zeros and lower but still
slightly plus daytime temps helped return the net gain in snowmaking
coverage, there was some solar thermal energy that had a daytime effect,
particularly on the South at base level.

Webcam Snap Shot looking upward from above
Flying Mile Base Loading zone to top of Johannsen
South Resort Base. The Summit stayed well enough below the freezing mark for
good production for the entire day.

The 14th also marked the beginning of what we initially thought might
be testing of the North Base Snowmaker. Eventually, it turned out that
initial impressions may have been wrong as snowmaking has been ongoing
off/on over there ever since! Tremblant began to photo document some of the Mountain Crews work
on the 14th as well and of all the pic's they have posted since, this first one
of a groomer working up the the final plateau of P'tit Bonheur remains one of
our favourites. By this point, The Weather Network forecast was showing the stable pattern
that has become the reality and Snowmaking production has also remained
stable from then 'til now.

This consistent and optimal snowmaking is creating what we might
consider to be one of the best seasons openings ever.
We'll finish up Chapter 2 with 2 webcam composites showing the ongoing
favourable snowmaking conditions as they were on the 15th. Once again,
the surprise to us was the ongoing North Side Base that was building up
to quite an amount, a testament to temperatures just cool enough to
keep the snow guns on all sectors of the Mountain in high gear.

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"Some Assembly Required" Preliminary 2012/13 Snow Report....

Chapter 3:

Notes from November 15th

With both stable weather and Snowmaking production well in hand and
looking very predictable for the seasons projected opening Nov. 22nd,
Tremblant published another wonderful Facebook album showing the
progress to date on Nov. 15th.

For us this marked the beginning of our true excitement because even though
there were only 4 photo's, what they depicted was the apparently immense
scope of the terrain that Mountain crews were developing for opening day.

Basically, based on what we saw there, we concluded that we have a very
good shot at having more open terrain to start this season than we may have
ever seen before!

Lets take a look, you'll see what we mean....

Below:
Lowell Thomas, Versant Nord, North Side, Summit Sector. We want to start with this because it represents one of Tremblant's
sweetest Summit sectors for both Skiers and Boarders and we can't
remember when, or how far back, this has been open for opening day.
It also means we'll have at least 2, if not 3 or more descent paths
on the North down to the Lowell Thomas Triple Chairlift.

Fantastic Opening Day news!

Moving on to the South Side, first off, we have this great pic
of all the work being done on Beauvallon and Nansen:
Up close detail pic. overlooking the Beauvallon Summit Sector:
The location of this one is not quite so obvious, however based on
our hunches, we think it's looking over Nansen, just below the pitch,
toward Beauvallon(Subject to correction):
The potentially amazing possibility is that based on the 3 immediately
above pic's and this one below....

Could we, will we, maybe, possibly, with really good luck,
have South Side Top-To-Bottom for Opening Day?????
Certainly, with all the resources necessary to create a track from
the TGV down to the South Side Base at the foot of Johannsen,
it would be a magnificent achievement on the part of Tremblant's
Mountain Crews if they can get that done!

We have no idea if it's actually going to be possible, but if it is,
it will truly make this seasons opening one of the very best on record!

Wild speculation or not, the evidence continues to suggest at least
the possibility of South Side Top-To-Bottom, so in the next chapter
we're going to look at the latest pic's available and try to get a sense
of how it may or could all end up...






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"Some Assembly Required" Preliminary 2012/13 Snow Report...

Chapter 4:

As time has gone by during the last 4 or 5 days, the evidence continues to
support at least the possibility of Top-To-Bottom Skiing/Boarding on the South
Side.

On the other hand, it would not be fair to create an undo expectation though
because there could be any number of legitimate reasons why it might not
be possible.

We do not have any direct connections to confirmed information and while
the weather continues to look good for it, there may well be zones that we can't see
or don't know about that could make it impractical.

If we have any hope for it at all, it's because we think that Mountain crews would
probably not have put in all that effort just to make a Cat-Track for Groomers
to use.

We also think that getting a stable base going now will really help speed up the
preparations for the 24 Hour Children's Charity Fundraiser, so there are certainly
a number of solid reasons why it might be desirable.

We could be wrong. We'll just have to wait and see on this point, so in the mean-time
lets look at the work that's been going on over the last few days and up to today.

From the 16th on to the 20th, development work on both sides of Tremblant
has continued on at a rapid pace.

Starting on the 16th, the South Base continued to be added to:

Between then and now, work has steadily gone forward. Much of it is
out of the sight of the webcams, so when Tremblant posted another album
on the 20th, it was just more confirmation that we are going to experience
an exceptional start to the season with both a trail selection and surface
quality that we feel will probably be talked about and compared to for
many seasons.

Here are the Archived Album samples:

As of the 20th, work and organization are ongoing at the Resort South Base.

Regardless of the exact specifics...

We're going to be overjoyed with whatever Mountain
Crews offer us on the 22nd!
We really like this last one below, because it shows the relative size of
the Snowmaking "Big Bumps" Tremblant Crews use to inventory snow
in critical areas. Basically, they build a huge mound, wait for it to
dry out a bit, then spread it like butter to instantly cover everything
in that zone. Rough terrain and natural hazards that we used to have to
dodge around are totally all gone in a flash leaving us with surface
quality often as good as mid-winter.

Look at the size of the groomer beside the "Big Bump"! That's a really
big pile of snow!!!

This strategy, applied all over the Mountain, is what is going to
make this a phenomenal Season's Opening for the record books!
Bottom Line on "Opening Day"....

Make Every Effort You Can To Be Here For
A Record-Setting Opening Day!!!

P.S. We hope to have our first Daily report in this forum up by 7:30 A.M.
Tomorrow morning, so we'll look forward to seeing you then!

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