just received a newsletter from Tline that announces

"Timberline Announces Major plans for increase in snowmaking"......purchased 40 additional guns

Great news...assuming they put in additional feeder pipes and compressors.
The Colonel

That's great. Now I am trying to recall how many guns in average on one trail from top to bottom, anyone?
Is it about 20 or less?

the newsletter states: these "40 are in addition to the 60 they purchased last year"...??

...and the "2 vertical turbine pumps the purchased in recent years"

From what I have read and heard is they also added guns last year but didnt have the ability to get enough water to them for producing "snow". This year they have added additional guns as well as alleviating the problem of getting water to them. So we should definately see better and more early season coverage.

Of course I could be waaayyyy off on this but this is my take.

Interesting. I had heard that they didn't put out all of the snow sticks last year because they couldn't afford to put the additional concrete bases in...

I know they had problems two years ago with burst feeder pipes - I didn't hear anything about that last year though. Of course, I'm not nearly as plugged in as some of you guys!

Clay

I believe that the 40 "new guns this year" are the remainder of the 100 they were going to installlast year. Hmmmmm... Clay youare right about the water pipes. As with most ski areas, it's a constant battle to keep up with an aging infrastructure. I believe the guns are fixed base guns similar to those on the drop and off the wall. John said that he saw new guns on Sally which would make sence since that trail takes almost two weeks of snowmaking to get open.