It's snowing enough to .....

[QikTrnz]

[glow=blue,2,300]It's snowing enough to show up as a white accumulation on the ground in front of the gondola right now ....[/glow]

There's not much of a chance it will stick at this early stage, but ...

.... While there are lots of folks complaining about how winter's coming, all the Tremblant fans are quietly smiling to themselves ....

It's only a matter of time ....

Winter is on the way .....

[QikTrnz]

So, Here is my theory on the why our little pre-season snow fall is really valuable for the long run, even thought it won't last for too long...

I am speculating that the biggest difference between forms of precipitation ie: rain vs. snow at this stage is:

the rates of dissipation and absorption of moisture, from the ground surface.

Rain will tend to "run-off" very quickly due to its fluid properties, however, snow, sits there and melts slowly, allowing a longer time for the ground surface to absorb the moisture, thereby soaking or saturating the surface layers more effectively than rain.

What this means in the long run could include:

1) ... The icy cold snow melt acts as a thermal conductor helping to reduce the surface temperature of the ground by chilling out any ambient heat in the ground left from the warmer season past, as it slowly soaks into the surface.

2) ... The higher level of surface saturation with moisture means that when the temps. go below freezing, there will be a greater chance of a good solid freeze in the surface layers that will act as a foundation for the snow fall accumulation that will be the "Base" for a good long winter Ski/Board season.

What will be nice to see are some nice cold "Flash Freeze" or "Cold Snap" night time temps that will help the thermal conductivity properties of the surface layer moisture to chill out the ground, freeze and be ready to support all that snow that's coming when winter really hits.

[QikTrnz]

Some of my friends are all worried that the long range weather does not look particularly good for seasons opening ....

However, here are a few factors that I like to remind them of :

1) ... Statistically, at this point in November, there are enough sub-zero days and or nights to support snow making efforts that will permit the season opening.

2) .... Weather stats are at GROUND level .... the top of the mountain is roughly 2,300 feet above that and that means it is always colder up there than it is at the base ..... more reasons that snow making can take place in the volume needed to open.

3) ... Tremblant has the most accomplished snow making team in the business. Period. If anyone can make snow and spread it out for ski-able terrain, Tremblant can.

4) .... Natures ideal natural snow making temps are between -3 c and -9c or right around the low 20's f, if your reading this Stateside, so those temps are right on the money for the 3rd week in November. When you combine that with #1 above, we should be in good shape, considering that nature will give us some more natural snow by then.

5) .... Season opening is a major marketing and prestige feature for the mountain which has invested big bucks in promoting the opening, so when you combine that with the timing of American Thanksgiving, no one is more motivated to get the mountain open than Tremblant.

Bottom line .... We always seem to pull it off for seasons opening, so have faith .... !!!!

[QikTrnz]

I'm keeping this thread going because the positive connotations of the words .... "It's snowing enough to...." are just about all the inspiration us Tremblant Ski/Board freaks need to have to anticipate the season opening in a little over 3 days from now.

A review of the weather network links on this site shows that there is not much in the way of natural snowfall between now and then .....

..... HOWEVER .....

There are lots of cold temps that will be consistent from now on that will allow snow making to go ahead at full speed from here on in.

If you look at the NEW MOUNTAIN TOP WEB CAM .... you will see that it is covered with ice and snow .... WHICH IS A GOOD SIGN ....

LINK to WEBCAM .....


www.tremblantwebcams.com/e/newmain.html?p=VB_mountain&vbcam=4&name=Sommet/Summit




If you navigate the cam to either far side of its travel, you can see that it's "snowing" a lot up there, so we know for sure that they have all the snow guns they can, fully operational.

For opening day they will try to have some of the main runs to the 2 mid mountain lifts covered.

That means the gondola will take you to the top and you will be able to ski/board to the TGV chair and the Lowell Thomas chair. If there is no coverage possible to the bottom, then downloading the Gondola will be the way back at the end of the day.

The runs open will be:

1) Beauvallon

2) Beauchemin

3) P'tit Bonheur

4) Lowell Thomas/Rope Tow

A further review of the mountain web cams shows that the top of Flying Mile is covered in white stuff, so evidently, the temps are holding well to that level on the hill which is a very good sign.

I would also like to point out that the North side will be easier to keep snow on at this stage, so that's where the best surfaces will be on opening day.


PLEASE READ THE REST OF THIS THREAD FOR MORE BACKGROUND ON OPENING DAY CONDITIONS. (relpy #2 in particular)

[QikTrnz]

.... MAKE BIG LUMPS OF SNOW ......

Well, actually we should say ... "it's cold enough to make snow and then there's enough of that snow to make big lumps" ....

This is the snow making strategy Tremblant has been successful using over the last 2 or 3 seasons and I think it works very well.

The idea is that instead of the old method of dragging the snow guns around to try to create an even blanket of snow, leave the guns in stationary positions for much longer periods of time and then use the packers to spread it around.

Leaving the guns stationary for long periods creates these huge lumps of snow that are "inventory" and can be distributed more effectively by packers, than waving the guns in the air all over the place.

This technique has been very well utilized on Expo, for example and demonstrates that these big concentrations are easy to get maximum coverage with.

Other benefits are that they are fun to ski on, in the right places and that they hold their cold internal temps for a long time which means they are a great way to store snow in marginal temps until you need to spread it out.

That is exactly what's going on at the top of Tremblant right now.

Temps are looking good for 24 hour snow making right up to opening, so we should be good.