Hi everyone....I am finally forcing myself to write this at the Brim blog post...it's been too long, but we've been in high gear preparing for this season from almost the day we closed last season!
Things
are looking GREAT out here at the Brim. The terrain that we will have open for
the weekend is solid….no scraping or stretching just to make it "skiable". Staying
closed this week enabled us to “do it right” and build a good base which will
allow us to move on without worry of losing what’s open if we hit a warm spell.
It also means that we will not be struggling to come back on these runs between
operational hours to build on the base. We will be back, but not before pushing
on to more run openings!
Snow making
production has been the best I have seen in many years thanks to good
temperatures and we are very close to adding to the list of open runs. We
currently are stating Standard, Bambi, Snow Bowl, and the Piggy Bank (full beginner park
with 11 features!) but hope to be adding to that list very soon!
For a complete list of operational hours for December, please visit, http://brimacombe.ca/hours_directions/hours
The Vault terrain park is really looking good as
well. It still needs a bit more time, but the relocation project is already proving itself
with regards to speed of snow making. Snow making equipment has also been running on Pete's Elbow and the lower half of Ladies' Downhill through to the Bowl Chair load area and we are working aggressively
towards having that terrain and the Bowl Chair open very soon. From here we will move to Ben's Bump, Bowl and onto the western runs!
I like pictures and I know you do too. If you have not been following us along on Facebook you may not have seen these yet....if you have there are also a few new ones thrown into the mix!
Fired up.
Fan gun fun.
Snow making is an art and a science, as simple as compressed air and water may seem our snow makers have to learn to read nature and tweak our equipment to maximize output while maintaining quality...not an easy task most days!
Here (above and below) we see a MyNeige brand Rubis EVO marginal temperature snow producer. These are considered "ultra low energy" snow guns meaning they use minimal compressed air to assist converting water to snow. These particular guns are "nozzled" for "marginal" temperatures...meaning they are designed to produce better quality snow at warmer temperatures and can be started up sooner (-3 degrees Celsius).
As many of you know, we completed a MAJOR expansion of our snow making pond this summer, we increased it's size by approximately 2.7 times!
Tim Z. provided us with the aerial photo below, the smaller square section at the bottom was the pond area we had previous to the project start...everything above that area in the picture is all new over the past two summers! A big project but it is proving its importance, our pond now holds approximately 80% of the water we will convert to snow all winter.
The pond has a surface area of approximately 6 acres and varies from 14 to 21 feet deep in all virgin clay. I have been told it is one of the biggest man made snow making ponds in North America (though I have nothing to back that up).
The photo above shows our current pond level (earlier this week)...barely a dent where as in past years we would be approaching the point where we would have to shut down our snow making system and recharge the pond before we could continue to make snow and open runs.
This is the view of the pond that most will see...beautiful shot but does not capture the true size of "Brimacombe Lake".
I always end my Blog posts with another day in Paradise, maybe these next few pictures will show you why I say that.
and finally, the view from my office window this morning...
There may not be loads of NATURAL snow...but don't worry, we...
A new season awaits and all of us here at the Brim are stoked! We can't wait to welcome you all back to the slopes, the vibe out here is electric!
It was another day in paradise...join me in one more sleep!
Cheers,
Mark
