mountain gets major upgrades

Dramatic changes to Windham Mountain's base lodge are getting all the attention, but the slopes are getting a lot of love, too!

SNOWMAKING - Windham Mountain has made another huge investment towards making our snowmaking system as efficient as possible.  By improving slopes and redeploying equipment where it will perform better, snow will get on the hill quicker – opening trails quicker. This summer, on-mountain projects involved upgrading snow technology, snow gun placement on trails, trail and lift maintenance. These projects are expected to be finished in the next five weeks.

While many different types of snowmaking technology are employed on the mountain, it is important to note that all of the snow guns used by Windham Mountain are the most efficient equipment available today. Replacing or relocating snow guns and snowmaking pipe on certain trails and areas enables the snow guns to run more efficiently. Tweaking and updating our systems ensures that the right equipment is in the right location on the hill and that less down-time will occur.

Snowmaking equipment has been installed on five of Windham Mountain’s trails, where there was limited snowmaking coverage before. Wing N’It has 23 new guns on the lower 2/3 of the trail and 9 guns on the top 1/3. Wiseacres has 17 new pedestals, which allow for portable guns to be installed there. Whirlwind, a great bump run for freestylers, has new guns on pedestals. A training area on Wonderama used primarily by the racing and freestyle programs now has 13 guns on pedestals. Whiskey Jack has 10 guns that were relocated from Wedgie.

Speaking of Wedgie, it is one of six trails that have more efficient and effective snow guns or fans. The other trails include:  Half Pipe, Warm Up, Whistler Mini-Wall, Wolverine and Lower Wraparound.  Old pipes on two lower trails have been replaced. Lower Wheelchair has 1400 feet of new or repositioned pipe, and Lower Whistler/Wraparound has 1000 feet of new pipe. Snowmaking will be even better this year!

LIFT MAINTENANCE – In addition to routine maintenance on all of Windham Mountain’s lifts, B and F lift towers are being painted and ramp work is being done on G and C lifts.  The Enclave carpet lift has been relocated to better serve the Enclave owners.

TRAIL MAINTENANCE - Drainage has been improved by replacing a collapsed culvert on Wonderama and clearing all water bars on the mountain.  Mountain bike trails are ready for fall weekend riding. Slope profiles in some critical areas have been improved by using material from the locker room excavation to raise and level slopes. This will result is less snowmaking in these areas.