Browse Our Archives

FAN GUN MONORAIL EXPRESS

Massanutten, Va., wanted to use its new snowmaking fan guns on more than one trail, where feasible. Mountain manager Mike Mueller considered installing a swing boom in the strip of woods separating two primary trails, but too many trees had to be cleared for it. So, the maintenance team came up with the concept of a monorail structure that would allow a fan gun to slide from one trail to the other, with little effort. The vertical support pipes are reclaimed 10-inch, heavy-wall snowmaking pipe with a weld reducer on top to act as an alignment dowel for the 40-foot-long, 14-inch square beam on top. A carriage was fabricated with poly rollers and slide blocks to allow the fan gun to roll along the beam. The monorail has an incline of about 7 percent, so the carriage will roll to one side by gravity, and a winch snowcat is used to assist with moving it the other way when needed. The team plans to add a winch system to move the carriage for this and others they plan to install in the near future.

 HOSE ROOF

When Steamboat Resort in Colorado got a new side-by-side Ranger, it came without a roof. Snowmaking e-tech Pierce “Del” DelHaute initially strapped a hydrant pad on the top to protect the driver and passenger from the elements. He soon concocted a more snowmaking-appropriate solution. The material comes from damaged lengths of 50-foot snowmaking hoses that are turned into 25-foot hoses with the resort’s coupling machine. DelHaute spent a few hours weaving the hose together, using bailing wire for stitching. He and teammate Corey Peterson initially wanted to use the scrap hose to make a giant hammock, but instead affixed it to the top of the side-by-side. “This was a more stylish way for the Ranger to stand out as a snowmaking machine,” says DelHaute. As for the original idea, “There are rumors of such a hammock existing, but I’m unsure what resort pulled it off,” he says.

Still a Good Idea...
ROLLING WELDER

As seen in SAM, March 2005: The crew at Winterplace Ski Resort, W.Va., was tired of having to move their welding machine to the back of a pickup every time a ski lift needed a fix. It required a forklift to load it from the shop to the truck, and sometimes the truck got stuck in the snow on the hill. Warren Smith’s solution was to convert a no longer needed carriage from a Lake Effect fan gun to a three-wheel mobile cart for the welding equipment. The original fan gun was mounted on a tower to increase hang time, making this a truly great recycle story. Smith’s welding cart consists of a Miller Roughneck gasoline powered electric welder that also doubles as a portable generator, an acetylene torch welder, and a box of tools. The welding cart can be towed with an ATV or snowmobile on level ground or a truck or snowcat for hills. The cart’s electric generator has come in handy many times during storm-caused power outages by powering the ski area’s phone system or running the fueling pumps for snowplows and rescue equipment.