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Snowmakers of NS

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PurpleDino
Posts: 1513 - Karma: 483
Snowmakers of NS, you are all very much appreciated.  I was curious to see how many people here not only ski, but also make the snow they're riding on.  This year was my first season trying snowmaking and I love it.  There is nothing better than working your ass off all night to make fresh, quality snow, and then get to ride it when the lifts open in the morning. 

So NS snowmakers, how long have you been making snow?  What got you into snowmaking?
Mar 11 2014 6:34PM
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KimberBlackWolf
Posts: 13 - Karma: 168
Snowmaking rocks! Was my first year on the night shift this year on a hill that is 99% man made snow, tons of awesome times with smelly bros and lots of yelling, kicking things, and whale riding. Definitely doing it again next season. I got into it personally because I live for snow and being able to ride the stuff you make, both snow wise and terrain park wise (now snowmaking is over I am park crew). That, and I am a very small girl that the guys thought wold quit in a week, so it made me want to try it even more, turns out not only was I fine, but i loved it. In mad snowmaking withdrawal right now.
On another note, read this article, not sure if its the same for you, but it had some pretty spot on remarks about the life of a snowmaker at the hill i worked at.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/156855189/confessions-of-a-snowmaker
Mar 12 2014 11:12PM
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littlelyonsman
Posts: 181 - Karma: 365
So I don't actually make snow, but I've got some serious respect for the guys that make it at the mountain I work for. Living on the mid-east coast, we don't get a lot of snow naturally. Thus, when the season begins, we heavily rely on the guys that run those guns to keep it pumping for as long as they can. I believe that around 95% of the snow I ride on is man-made, probably more. The only reason we had snow last year was because of the guns and the guys that run them. Hats off to the people that work all hours of the night to make other skiers/boarders seasons that much better!
Mar 12 2014 11:19PM
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yangumane
Posts: 1816 - Karma: 3,347
Did you really just call man made snow 'quality'?
Mar 12 2014 11:20PM
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KimberBlackWolf
Posts: 13 - Karma: 168
Better than no snow.
Mar 12 2014 11:23PM
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Mr.Bishop
Posts: 22708 - Karma: 76,635
Dude depends on what kind of snow you need. Sure if you're at mount baker and talking about the fresh fluffy stuff from the sky its crap....

But if you're working park duty and you want your entire park nuked with 13' of new snow inside of a week... these guys are fucking miracle makers.

Plus, man made snow is more porous than natural snow, so it lasts longer even when it rains. If you're preserving your base, your park or something else on the east coast its godsent.

Mar 13 2014 12:22AM
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KimberBlackWolf
Posts: 13 - Karma: 168
Exactly, The hill i work at is in a city and has a great terrain park with an olympic super pipe, so any snow is great quality. The snow is not the best when it falls fro the guns, but with proper snowmaking knowledge we try to avoid making shitty quality snow unless we really have too. It is a lot more complicated than what most people think it is.
Mar 13 2014 1:09AM
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yangumane
Posts: 1816 - Karma: 3,347
13'? Jesus
Mar 13 2014 1:13AM
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Mr.Bishop
Posts: 22708 - Karma: 76,635
It was the apocalypse.

The problem was I talked shit to the head snowmaker.

Doug: Dude, I need fucking SNOW in this park. The melt was bad, give me everything you got.

Snowmaker: Ok man, but you need to take all the rails out of this park, trust me.

Doug: Ok cool.... I'll take most of them out, but that one that is standing on a 7' deck and is 6' high is all good.

Snowmaker: No, its not... trust me.

Doug: Come on man, there's no fucking way you're going to bury that.

13' of snow across the entire park after 5 days plus one portable gun pointed directly at that rail later....

I stood corrected.

Mar 13 2014 1:22AM
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PurpleDino
Posts: 1513 - Karma: 483
You'd be surprised. Some mountains just crank guns wide open and make whatever they can and this is the man made snow most people are used to. But with better systems and snowmakers we can pin point the exact quality of snow we want to make. Closed trails we'll blow a heavier base snow. On open trails we'll adjust our water pressure so we get more powdery snow. I'm a ski bum at heart and got into snowmaking so I could try to make better snow than what my home mountain made. Trust me, with the right knowledge, man-made snow is quality.
Mar 13 2014 4:14PM
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PurpleDino
Posts: 1513 - Karma: 483
And here's a cool picture to maybe spark interest in snowmaking...

Click for larger image
Mar 13 2014 4:19PM
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yangumane
Posts: 1816 - Karma: 3,347
I want to make a mini one for the winter so I always have snow for my backyard setup, but it seems pretty expensive
Mar 13 2014 10:17PM
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T.L.
Posts: 4729 - Karma: 3,008
Doug, I know exactly what you're talking about!  This year was the first time I have EVER asked the snowmakers to not make snow in certain spots.  Usually I'm just like fuck it, we need the snow.. if shit gets buried, I'll deal with it and push some snow elsewhere.  This year was a different story.  We had our jumps early but they still wanted to make snow on them so the landings would always get filled in.  I'd constantly have to dig out the landings downhill and rebuild the jump below it with the new snow simply because there was nowhere else to go with it.  About a month ago I was like please.. just stop for like 2 nights so I can catch up lol.
Mar 14 2014 9:17AM
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PurpleDino
Posts: 1513 - Karma: 483
I can see why that's such a pain in the ass. At Sunday River we left the top section of the park trail as a snow harvest section so we'd let the park crew know we would be blasting snow and they had time to either rip out the jibs or move them over. But we purposely left one section of trail for snowmaking so we wouldn't bury all the features
Mar 14 2014 1:29PM
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SkiBum.
Posts: 3600 - Karma: 3,909
Automation. Make snow at your desk!

If you are not getting into automation you are many steps behind.
Mar 14 2014 1:41PM
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