BEN'S BLOG

Tim Moon - Assitant GM, myself, and Charlotte Skinner - Chief of Staff and CFO on top of the Palisades at Olympic Valley, California. - 01/18/2023 We've made it through the holidays and are getting into the groove of the regular season. I spent the last week at Palisades Tahoe in California attending the National Ski Areas Association winter conference. This conference is a great opportunity for ski area operators and suppliers from across the country to share ideas, learn from each other, and be reminded of the awesome industry we're all a part of. For me it was a great opportunity to reflect on the start of my (and our company's) first season here at Snowriver. I spent a lot of time thinking about the feedback the team and I have received and how we can continue to provide the best experience possible to our guests each and every day. I'm excited to share a few changes we have in the pipeline and look forward to continuing our work to enhance this already legendary re

Phew! It's been a long two weeks since I've sat down to give an update on what's going on at The River. In fact I can hardly believe it has been that long since the big storm hit us. The National Weather Service ended up reporting just over 20" of new snowfall for our Christmas Morning reopening. With the intense winds we saw, there were many places across the mountains with nearly double that amount. The photo of me here really puts it in perspective. My official snow report for that day was somewhere between waist and chest deep. Deep enough if you ask me.  Despite the challenging weather, the team was able to pull together and get the resort open on Christmas Day. An incredible amount of shoveling, plowing and snow-swimming was done by all to get the lifts turning, and facilities ready to serve our guests. By Monday the 26th we were rocking 100% of our terrain across both mountains. Thanks to the timely assistance from Ullr we were able to put the snowguns away and

As I sit down to write this afternoon, Winter Storm Elliott is bearing down on us here at Snowriver. Winds and snowfall have increased steadily throughout the day today and are now reaching true blizzard-like conditions. The overnight forecast is calling for increasing winds and heavy, heavy snowfall. Road conditions are expected to deteriorate overnight and be very poor for our employee's commutes tomorrow morning. For their safety and the safety of those guests traveling to ski with us tomorrow, I have made the difficult decision to close our ski area for tomorrow, 12/24/2022. Our staff is reaching out to those who made advanced purchases and will assist in changing dates or issuing refunds as necessary. I'd like to wish a very Merry Christmas Eve to our staff and all of our guests. I look forward to opening again on Christmas Morning - more details on that in a minute. National Weather Service forecast for the next 48 hours as of 3pm - 12/23/2022 For those guests staying wi

In the ski business, the week leading up to Christmas is always a BIG week. The Christmas holiday up until the start of the New Year is typically the busiest time of the season, meaning we need to be ramped up and ready to provide the best possible experience for those who choose to spend their holiday with us. That's what this week is all about, getting ready to rock. Here's what we've got going on: More Snowmaking Having as much open terrain as possible during the holiday week is our mission each season. A mission we started work on as soon as the resort purchase was finalized this fall. The team continues a strong snowmaking run as I write, with operations at Black River Basin scheduled to wrap up tomorrow morning (12/20/2022). We'll aim to get all the guns pulled off the mountain to make room for the cats to push out Cameron's Spur and build some features on Family X and Just Cuz.  Once they're done we'll sit back and let mother nature work her magic lea

 Yesterday was opening day at Jackson Creek Summit. It was exciting to welcome guests into the renovated Summit Center, now named the Sugar Maple Chalet. It was fun to watch our long time season pass holders check out all the changes we'd made to a place they've been so familiar with over the years. Who knew carpeting and anti-slip vinyl flooring could be such an exciting change.  The rental shop is finally finished and welcomed it's first renters yesterday. The space turned out great thanks to the hard work from many hands. It's so neat to see families get outfitted in their gear before heading straight onto the beginner slopes, just a few steps away. Our staff particularly appreciates the opportunity to watch their customers take their first turns, instead of being stuck in the windowless shop they previously called home.  We did have a few hang-ups in our plan that caused us to modify our operations for opening day and the rest of the weekend. As part of the construc