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Warm Days Delay Sugarloaf Opening

November 23, 2009 - KINGFIELD -- According to the original plan (which, of course, had to be OK’d by Mother Nature), Sugarloaf would have opened Friday, welcoming skiers and snowboarders to the winter wonderland.

And though the resort’s snowmaking staff did what it could to prepare for that self-imposed deadline, a week of warm weather has delayed the season opener for a bit.

“Right now it’s pouring rain,” Sugarloaf Communications Manager Ethan Austin said on Friday afternoon. “We are making snow whenever we get the chance. The last good shot at it we had was Wednesday night.”

Austin said snowmaking crews had been focusing their efforts on upper Tote Road, and a fairly good base was laid down.

“Then it warmed up, and we haven’t been able to make snow,” Austin said. “It looks like our next chance will be early next week. We hope to be making snow again Tuesday night.”

Austin said that the freezing point of water — 32 degrees — is the magic number for making snow, but snow guns can still produce the white stuff when temperatures are a degree or two warmer than that. The resort staff would like to see a nice cold snap, however.

“When you make snow at the higher temperatures it takes a ton of energy to do,” Austin said. “You need more air at higher pressure. So that uses up a ton more electricity.”

The snow that was made recently hasn’t all melted, even though the rain was falling and temperatures on upper Tote Road were in the 40s on Friday.

“It was so warm [when we made snow] that the snow we made was pretty thick and heavy,” Austin said. “It’s still there. So now once we get back into it, the snow [we make] won’t be landing on bare, warm ground. It’ll land on a pile of mush that we made and that will speed things up.”

Austin said the weather at Sugarloaf this week wasn’t what Carrabassett Valley residents have come to expect.

“This week was really weird. We had inversions almost every single day, which means that the temperatures are flipped,” he said. “It’s warmer aloft than down low.”

As a result, he said, when he hopped into his car — down in the valley — to head to work in the mornings, it was often 18 degrees or so.

By the time he got to his office near the SuperQuad lift, however, it would be 30.

“That was a little odd. That didn’t help whatever efforts we had going,” Austin said.

Austin said the resort doesn’t have a new target date in mind for its official opening, but it will open as soon as the weather cooperates. He said he still expects skiers to be making their first turns soon.

“We’re hoping to open late next week, if we can get the [lower] temperatures back. That’s still up in the air,” he said. “My personal opinion is Thursday or Friday.”

For updates on snowmaking efforts and the resort’s opening date, go to www.sugarloaf.com.

By John Holyoke
Bangor Daily News Staff 11/21/09


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