Good Snow and a Great Night

The natural snowfall mostly stopped by early evening yesterday. The temperature dropped with an overnight wet bulb low of 15 F. The snowmakers had all the fan guns spinning. Most of the guns are still running now. We are not sure how warm the day will be, but tonight looks cold again. Our earlier snowmaking efforts were mostly for testing and training. Last night was the real deal.

Good Snow

On a forecast of 0-1", we received several inches of snow this afternoon. On top of that, it's cold out there. The snowmaking system is up and running this evening. It looks like we may have a few more snowmaking windows this week. The snow is a big help. Sunny days this week should melt some of that snow, particularly on south facing slopes. That melted snow will raise stream flow levels providing more water for snowmaking. This weather event is very good for us.

Take a close look at the photo below. Pali's new RFID gates can be seen on the far left. New Pali carriers (the actual chairs) can be seen on the far right.

 

Uneventful

The Molly Hogan acceptance test went just the way we wanted it to, completely uneventfully. The engineers found a few things to fix and finish like a phone that wasn't working, a couple door knobs that needed adjustment, switches that needed to be moved slightly and a few other small things. The next steps involve getting those items right, doing some administrative work and applying to the Colorado Passenger Tramways Safety Board for a license.

They engineers were happy. They even smiled.

 

Molly Hogan Acceptance Test

Tomorrow we will do the Molly Hogan Acceptance Test (Load Test). There will be pocket protector type engineers crawling all over the place physically inspecting the lift. They will load each chair with boxes of water to simulate a fully loaded chairlift. They will check every possible way to start, stop and slow the lift. They will toggle all the buttons and controls in every sequence they can imagine. They will check to make sure that everything is working the way it is supposed to.

The Pali splice happened today. The Leitner Poma crew will put the chairs on next and finish with all of that lift's controls. We hope to load test that lift next week.

 

Rope Is In Place

The wire rope is in place on Pali. The rope is still de-tensioned in anticipation of the splice. The rope splicing sensei arrives Thursday and will begin connecting the two rope ends. Once that is complete, the chairs will be attached. Within a week, the New Pallavicini will look like a chairlift.

Wire Rope Next

The new Pallavicini is definitely taking shape. The towers and terminals are complete. The communication (com line) is set. The pilot line is in place. That line is a small cable set manually where the wire rope will eventually be. The wire rope or haul rope will be attached to the pilot line. The motor will turn and slowly, the pilot line will pull the wire rope into place. We hope to see the rope splice occur later this week with the possibility of chairs on line by the weekend.

 

Early Snowmaking

Last week we ran the snowmaking system for the first time this season. Often, the very early sessions are a combination of equipment testing and staff training. It is often hard to know whether this first effort will really amount to much actual snow. This week's effort was no different than most years. We worked out a few bugs and our snowmakers had some great practice. The real objective is to have staff and gear completely ready for when it really does get cold. Then we make some very serious snow. I am happy to have a few "practice rounds."

 

RFID Gantries

 Our RFID gantries have arrived for Lenawee, Pali, and Black Mountain Express.  These will be the gates you enter through to get your pass scanned. We will be installing these at the lifts in the next couple of weeks. The best news about this new system is no more cold hands.