Capdistski
Well-known member
- Joined
- Jul 22, 2020
Burnt ridge chair seems to be having issues. Generator running
Gore Mountain Conditions
- Thread starter Cork
- Start date
Capdistski
Well-known member
- Joined
- Jul 22, 2020
They were closing sagamore as I got off lift. Pipeline day
Good day. Started at the bowl and did a few 46ers which were skiing nice when it became known the BRQ was down with no estimate (2/2 this season for me getting stuck at the bowl!). Did one more and a moxham before giving in and taking the shuttle to the base around 9:50. Driver said an hour to get to the base but it took 5 minutes...Surprisingly for the time lot G was only just filling up and only a few cars on the access road. Strange for a presidents weekend Saturday.
Took the gondi up which also had almost 0 line for singles and the AE2 was ski on. Again strange. Lapped Rumor and it's sweet chalky manmade most of the morning. Clear ROTD. Did a Lies, Hawkeye, and Chati in there and they were pretty good if you skiied the sides. The middle not so much. Mixed in a couple open pit to lower Darbys and a Hullabaloo and Pit to Darby was second place for ROTD. Moved over to Topridge and the skiers right was good and warranted a rerun. Finished the day at Burnt Ridge and did a Sagamore run before taking Backwoods to the bowl around 3. Both were skiing good considering it was late in the day with Backwoods skiing a little better and no ice to speak of anywhere.
It seemed strangely uncrowded for Presidents Weekend Saturday and lines were short to non-existent and so was crowding on the trails. Seemed like just another weekend vs a holiday weekend. Lift tickets were "sold out" (I ran into multiple people who bought tickets at the window this morning). Wonder if they capped them at a low number? I'm not complaining!
Took the gondi up which also had almost 0 line for singles and the AE2 was ski on. Again strange. Lapped Rumor and it's sweet chalky manmade most of the morning. Clear ROTD. Did a Lies, Hawkeye, and Chati in there and they were pretty good if you skiied the sides. The middle not so much. Mixed in a couple open pit to lower Darbys and a Hullabaloo and Pit to Darby was second place for ROTD. Moved over to Topridge and the skiers right was good and warranted a rerun. Finished the day at Burnt Ridge and did a Sagamore run before taking Backwoods to the bowl around 3. Both were skiing good considering it was late in the day with Backwoods skiing a little better and no ice to speak of anywhere.
It seemed strangely uncrowded for Presidents Weekend Saturday and lines were short to non-existent and so was crowding on the trails. Seemed like just another weekend vs a holiday weekend. Lift tickets were "sold out" (I ran into multiple people who bought tickets at the window this morning). Wonder if they capped them at a low number? I'm not complaining!
Attachments
I forgot to mention this but BRQ was running this afternoon on generator/diesel power (was super loud)? Good on Gore running it on the generator to help with the crowds and keep the ski bowl access. I was upset this morning when it went down and I get it's tough to deal with power issues but good on them for running it anyways. I don't know lifts (or snowmaking) though like @snoloco.
snoloco
Well-known member
- Joined
- Jan 1, 2021
I think they had capped it low, based on anticipated passholder or frequent skier card visits, but when the numbers were lower than expected, they reopened ticket sales, which is why people were able to buy at the window. No reason to turn people away when the mountain isn't overcrowded. Sunday is the busiest day of President's Weekend. Saturday is an arrival day for many, and Monday is a go home day for many.
The Burnt Ridge Quad, and all of Gore's detachables have two diesel backups. There is a large diesel engine that can run the lift at about 80% speed, and a small one that can run the lift at 20% speed. If the electric motor can't be used for whatever reason, then the lift can operate normally using the large diesel. If the large diesel stops working, then the small diesel can be used to unload the lift, but it can't continue operating. You typically need one backup available to continue loading the lift. The exception is for lifts that start in dead ends, where the only way out is to ride it. Then you'd be able to load the people who are stuck at the bottom, since it's their only way out.
Another caveat is that you need electric power for the lift's control system, whether running on electric or diesel. This is why during power outages, all lifts usually have to close, even if they have two backups. You can override the control system and control the diesel engine manually, but only when unloading the lift. In instances where the power supply is disrupted for an extended period, generators will be connected at both terminals to run the control system. For example, Attitash's brand new Mountaineer lift is bottom drive, and the electric motor works just fine, but they didn't finish the electric line to the top terminal in time for this season, so they are using a generator there as a temporary measure.
I'm not sure why it took them so long to switch over to diesel, or maybe it was just a lack of communication. It only takes maybe 10 minutes to switch.
It'll be interesting to see whether it's switched back to electric, or if it has to keep running on diesel for longer. There have been multiple instances where lifts have had to run on diesel for an extended period of time, due to a failure of the electric motor or drive, where there was a long lead time on the part needed to fix it. For example, the Snowdon Six at Killington ran on diesel for all of April 2022, Sugarbush's Green Mountain Express ran on diesel for the entire 2019-2020 season. Stratton has had two instances of lifts that had ran on diesel for extended periods. The URSA Express for all but the first few weeks of the 2017-2018 season, and the Sunrise Express from sometime in February 2020 right up until the covid closure.
Dmoss
Well-known member
- Joined
- Sep 13, 2021
Interesting, our theory was that the clientele on a holiday weekend like today are more the show up at 9-9:30 and ski the front side type. We were surprised at how empty the lodge was at 8am. Also a lot more families with 3-5 people in one car cuts down on parking issues.
Today was very enjoyable. The light snow that fell last night made for a great morning. Echo was a mess late in the afternoon and was little upset Twister was closed. Hopefully they can groom the whales tonight. Rumor had tons of snow on it early in the day. Overall I was expecting crowded chaos today and it was the total opposite.
