Page 13 - GP Periodical 2018-19

Outdoor Operations
The Operations Team has been preparing all summer to get ready for our upcoming ski season. This summer, we again, concentrated our efforts on the hill to ensure that our snowmaking operations and trails are well maintained and we are able to make snow as efficiently as possible.
This year’s infrastructure improvements included complete snowmaking pipe replacement at the top of Monster & the bottom of Bay Street. With this replacement, we have introduced some cathodic protection on the new pipe in the form of zinc anodes. An anode is the electrode in a polarized electrical device through which current flows in from an outside circuit. The way we counteract galvanic corrosion is to add a third metal into the circuit, one that is quicker than the other two to give up its electrons. This piece of metal is called a sacrificial anode. This will assist with the slowing of our underground pipeline deterioration.
We have installed 32 automated snowmaking hydrants on Lower Champlain as part of our continued snowmaking automation program. The system has been tested and as of this writing (Nov 20), we are making snow on Champlain. We have installed our new Snomax injector. Our previous injector was installed in 1988. We will see a much improved snow yield & quality with this upgrade. Each of our automated guns has a light to indicate that they are active. You will notice these small indicator lights on our equipment when it is dark out. This is normal and we would like to remind everyone to please leave these alone. I would like to recognize our Snowmaking Team, Darryl McPhatter and Ryan Gretton for their dedication and tireless efforts to complete the project on schedule. We will continue to work with our manufacturer and our Property & Planning Committee to further our snowmaking automation projects.
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