Idea Files :: January 2024

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.