Whitetail 2022-2023 thread
17 hours ago
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I figured I'd start a Whitetail thread, though the initial news isn't good.
Unfortunately, we discovered the pump that supplies all of the snowmaking water to the mountain was not working properly. Our team worked through the night and sent the part out for an emergency repair. We hope to have it reinstalled and tested within the next couple of days so we are ready to maximize the next snowmaking opportunity.
Like you, we are disappointed to miss an opportunity to make snow. The good news is all of the runs we have open will remain open. Tubing will also open Thursday, as well as Lower Angel Drop Terrain Park.
I don't know about Southern PA, but the DC area forecast looks pretty warm for the near term
Yes this is a bummer, but fortunately it happened as the weather is getting warmer so they shouldn't miss too much snowmaking time. Had this happened a week ago, that would have been really bad! I was out today and they have a good amount of snow on the trails...it should certainly carry them through this warm spell.
As a civil engineer, I have been involved in the design of water and sewage pumping stations. We always build in redundancy. To avoid failures, most of these public works type pump stations have multiple pumps. If one pump fails, the 'spare' pump (or pumps) then operates. Additionally, to minimize wear on the pumps, they typically operate in a lead/lag configuration and each pump will operate for some time to keep it in good working order. If the lead pump fails, the lag pump(s) then operate. If the demand exceeds the capacity of the lead pump, the lag pump(s) come on to meet the demand. I have no idea how snow making pump stations are designed, but having spare operating capacity would help eliminate the termination of snow making operations if the single pump fails.
If your entire operation is based on snowmaking, there should have been a “baby monitor” on those pumps, period.
Surprisingly good corn snow conditions at Whitetail today with no crowds. Parts of Snowpark, Limelight and Homerun are narrow but overall the snow base is good and should mostly survive the warmth of the next few days. 
Anyone know how these warm temps are impacting Whitetail/Liberty? I know it cant be good but wondering if they will have to close? I was trying to get up there within the next two weekends.
Friday at Whitetail was great (springlike weather and springlike snow/mostly frozen slush). Yesterday was thinner cover. Both days had zero crowds. I can’t imagine they can keep this up much longer, though. Hopefully cold weather end of the week (and a replaced pump ) and they’ll be back making snow.
Regarding the pump issue, I spoke with someone in somemaking on Sunday...he says they will be ready to make snow once the cold weather returns. Unfortunately looking at the forecast, it appears like that is still a ways away. It's bad for the whole East Coast...Stowe today only has 29% of its trails open. Crazy!
👏👏👏
I really must say that when it comes to "surprise" mechanical failures (pumps, lifts, compressors) at Vail resort properties, it is a bit like "my dog ate my homework." You can test things at the end of the season; you can test things at the beginning of the season; hell, you can even test things in the middle of summer! Let's all hope the Vail GM's truly get their respective acts together and that we're done with this early season mechanical silliness.
Looking at the pics (granted they're dated now), I wouldn't call brown snow with black spots in it good cover. Those are rock ski conditions.
Interesting to look back on how Whitetail came about - and barely survived - previous poor winters...
dcski.com
900+ plus vertical feet of wide southern aspect slopes - rough
When I was a ski instructor at 7S back in the early 90's, I recall Lars Skylling telling us that while he was worried about Whitetail from a competitive standpoint, he was equally sure that the mountain's realtively low base elevation and southeastern orientation would always be its achillies heel. Rule #1 in the mid-Atlantic, cut the runs facing north!
Hard to remember each Winter over the last 10 years or so, but can anyone remember a Winter when WT had so little terrain open this late in the season? I see they will sometimes run the guns on the expert terrain, but have such a long way to go to get those slopes open at some point it won't make economic sense for them to do so. I know there were some snow making problems early in the season for them and the weather hasn't helped, but it seems from the cams that they are only making snow really to freshen up the limited existing trails open (and not even make them wider) and are a long way from opening more terrain. Looks like the next chance to really make an all out effort to open more terrain will be late next week.
It’s snowing at Whitetail now. Not sure how much it will be.
Yeah looks pretty good considering the winter we've had so far. Maybe an inch or 2 so by noon.
Looks like we ended up with about 4 inches of snow today. This is off my porch in the Whitetail village. 
Nice pic BaySailor - did any of that 4" stick around?
Probably going to whitetail Saturday early with low temps looking ok for night time snowmaking.
2 blues/2 greens open, rough year so far. They were still firm when I left at 1145.
Thats what she said
hotelterp wrote:
Nice pic BaySailor - did any of that 4" stick around?
Probably going to whitetail Saturday early with low temps looking ok for night time snowmaking.
I just got back up here to Whitetail tonight., The natural snow is pretty much gone, but the guns have been blazing the mountain continously since Thursday night. They won't have any new terrain open yet, but what is open should be much better than the past couple weeks. With the colder temps forecast for the coming week, I'm hopeful next weekend they will have a lot more of the mountain open. Keeping my fingers crossed! 🤞
hotelterp wrote:
Nice pic BaySailor - did any of that 4" stick around?
Probably going to whitetail Saturday early with low temps looking ok for night time snowmaking.
Does anyone remember the last Winter when there was so little terrain open at Whitetail this late into the season (and the terrain that is open is so narrow)? No guns running early this morning and not looking good for more snowmaking until Tuesday night (though the next week after that looks pretty good). I wonder how much effort they will put into getting all of the terrain open at that point or if they will just look to expand the width of the trails they currently have open (and maybe add Home Run off of the high speed quad and one or two expert trails).
I've been checking out the webcams for snowmaking coverage at whitetail during this cold spell - does anyone on the ground have a report on where they are blowing besides angeldrop and 2 expert runs? Hopefully they can open additional terrain before the next warmup.
Thanks
i’ve been watching the same cams. things have been looking… grim… until 24 hours ago. but they’ve been blowing nonstop today.
i’m heading up there tomorrow (thursday feb 2nd) and i’ll try to post a report. only blue listed as open is angel drop but the cameras suggested they were blowing almost everywhere. if they get fanciful open i could happily lap that all day. if they still only have greens and angel drop, i’m probably not going to be staying long.
i have a five day pass and i can’t believe it is taking until february to burn the first day!
This morning they don't seem to be blowing any snow on the expert terrain even though they were during the day yesterday and are blowing on Angel Drop, Snowpark and a bit on Home Run. There appears to only be a short window from early tomorrow morning through Saturday night to blow snow consistently. After that it looks like there won't be another window for some time. My guess is they have given up on the expert terrain as the snow making they had been doing on the expert terrain wasn't making a big impact on it. It's hard to tell if they are making snow on the other two blue trails from the top (Limelight and Snow Dancer), but are blowing some on Home Run (though still has a long way to go to open it) so could end up the season with effectively just four trails open (Snowpark/Stalker and Sidewinder for greens and Fanciful and Angel Drop/Home Run) which is really pathetic if that is the case.
at the mountain now. cameras pretty much tell the full story. fanciful and sidewinder aren’t on the cams but are both open with mostly decent coverage. i can’t see how they will get any of the blacks open. limelight has snow everywhere except the very bottom so it isn’t open. looks like they have a drainage problem at the bottom.
food court is open, which is nice. lift lines are nonexistent, as are my skills apparently. my plan is to lap fanciful and angel drop all afternoon, then leave when it gets dark.
it’s a bummer they don’t have more snow down, but if i’m being honest, the other two blues and the blacks likely wouldn’t change my experience much. i don’t really seek moguls these days, and the groomers are all more or less the same.
cheers!
Just looked at the cams and damn that looks awful. I know it can be fun skiing alone but I don't think I'd burn the gas to get to mud mountain.
chuck_wow wrote:
Just looked at the cams and damn that looks awful. I know it can be fun skiing alone but I don't think I'd burn the gas to get to mud mountain.
What they have open doesn’t look bad, and they should be able to run snowmaking non stop until Sunday morning. They should open another trail or 2 and probably get the best base they have had all season.
And then Tues, Wed, Thursday daytime highs forecasted for 55F and nightly lows stay above freezing. I hope they make some whales.
Moral of the story: get it this weekend because next weekend likely won't be good.
Conditions were pretty good today - very soft and slightly slow under snow fans lots of side hits and fun features
it was deceptively crowded lots of people but singles line on quad was less than 5 min wait max
Bold decision looks ready for opening? One can hope
Looks like Whitetail is trying to get Bold Decision ready to open. And they just started re-making snow on Exhibition, although that still has a ways to go (and the snowmaking forecast isn't looking too great after today). Have they made any snow on Far Side?
i was looking at the webcam this morning, and saw a snowboarder coming down bold decision. turns out it was an employee... there was a snowmobile at the bottom with some other folks milling around.
but at least one human managed to do a black at Whitetail this year! he might end up in rare company.
I was up there today. Nothing yet on Far Side Scott. Unfortunately I'm not feeling that optimistic about Far side opening this year. At the rate we are going, it may just be Drop In/Bold Decision for the blacks this year. Here is to hoping for a big change in the weather!
Scott wrote:
Looks like Whitetail is trying to get Bold Decision ready to open. And they just started re-making snow on Exhibition, although that still has a ways to go (and the snowmaking forecast isn't looking too great after today). Have they made any snow on Far Side?
they opened bold decision / drop in. didn’t think they would! i really hope they get another window for snow after this week (i can’t make it up there before next week :-/)
