Thankful to be Open

Opening day has arrived.  I wasn’t as optimistic as to whether we would be open on Thanksgiving  last Saturday, but with some good temperatures, hard work, a little luck and a foot of snow, ta da, we are open.  It is quite a business we are in, one day we are planning to open our Mini Golf and adventure zone because we don’t have any snow, and then we are skiing and riding with some great conditions.

The snowmaking forecast will be a challenge this coming week no doubt.  It does look like we are in a quick warm spell through this weekend and into early next week. As we get through the week, the temperatures begin dropping with what looks like some much colder weather arriving the first week in December.

So where do we go from here?  When we can make snow, the crew will begin branching out on some of the upper mountain trails where the temperatures are colder as well as those that get us some movement off the summit. Defiance will be worked on as it is close to Upper World Cup and takes some pressure off of World Cup, Sapphire and Sunburst will be made on as Sunburst gets us towards Escape and into Jackson Gore and Sapphire is a good trail to work on as we head towards the Green Ridge and Route 103, Upper Arrow down to Lower Arrow.  Sapphire also gets us to Solitude and Heaven’s Gate. It is important during the early season to get spread out with skiing and riding so we can make the experience better for everyone and get terrain open as we head to the holidays.

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone. All of us can find something to be thankful for.  Keep your eye on the web site and you will find the latest news and updates…….

Think snow and some cold weather…….

Bruce Schmidt

VP & GM

Snowmaking Update

It was an interesting night of snowmaking. You can always tell when there is mixed precipitation on the way do to a temperature inversion. It was colder at the base most of the night than it was on the summit!



The good news is that the crew had a good night of snowmaking on World Cup down towards the base of the Glades peak chair. There was very limited snowmaking on the summit. There is still a need for more snow on Buckhorn as well as sections of Upper World Cup and Drop off. We also ran some guns in the base area near A&B quad to take advantage of the colder base area temps.

As today progresses, there will be an evaluation of what the trails look like and what is left to do. We will also send a groomer up to push around and get a feel for what we have so far.

Stay close because we are also looking at the weather as tonight’s storm has taken some interesting twists and turns...

Bruce Schmidt
GM