BEN'S BLOG

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...

The Sugar Maple Chalet (former Summit Center) is really starting to come together, with renovations wrapping up in preparation for our opening day this Friday. Between contractors and our own team, there is quite the flurry of activity going on as I write this morning. We're going to be running down to the wire with a number of finishing touches. The new ticket windows are nearing completion, with just the windows themselves yet to be installed. Delivery is scheduled for Wednesday, and the crew will get to work on installing them as soon as they arrive. In the meantime, we'll be working on setting up the computers with our point-of-sale systems to be ready for our guests on Friday. Once complete, all day tickets and rentals will be sold out of these windows. Season pass pickup will be available at the guest service counter inside the chalet. The new carpet, paint, and furniture has made a tremendous difference inside the chalet. The classic charm of the building really shines w...

It's been a busy week... err couple days across the resort. Hard to believe it's only Wednesday with all that's been going on. Wanted to give you all an update on our expected terrain for this weekend now that we have another couple days of snowmaking knocked out. Things have shaped up really well. The guns have been blowing steady on River Drive, Upper Spillway, Whitesides Crossing and Logjam since last weekend. River Drive is still a go for Thursday morning with C-Lift and the other trails coming online by the time Saturday rolls around. Thanks to the careful track packing done over the past month by our cat crew, we'll also have a couple natural snow trails ready to ride including Horseshoe and Duke's mixture.  The remaining trails that have yet to open still need some more work from mother nature and our team before their ready for skis and boards. The heavy rainfall right before the first snowfall has left some persistent wet spots that aren't holding snow ...

I had the opportunity to get out skiing with my Dad and my Sister on Sunday to wrap up the weekend. It was great to be out on the snow. Shanty Boy was a blast. Smooth, fast, and steep. Was fun to think that we're really just getting started, with so much more terrain to open and enjoy this season. The conditions were made even better by my brand new boots from Big Snow Outfitters in Bessemer. Growing up, my first few pairs of skis and boots all came from BSO's retired rental fleet, so of course it was the first place I thought to look to get my slightly packed out boots fitted properly. Walking into the store brought back so many childhood memories of stopping by the store after a day of skiing to enjoy the warmth of the wood burning fire and browse around dreaming of what equipment I'd buy when I grew up. The nostalgia must have got to me because it wasn't long before I was walking out with a new pair of Lange boots. Apparently the boots I'd been rocking for the pa...

Brand new SMI Polecats running on lower Superior (formerly Chippewa) 12/1/2022 The cool temps held out overnight and allowed us to have a solid 48 hours of snowmaking across both resorts. We had 12 guns running at Black River Basin and 25 over at Jackson Creek Summit, maxing out the capability of our current systems. As of 9 o'clock this morning our teams had the guns shutdown and have started the process of draining lines, dragging hoses back to the shop and shuffling the guns around to prepare for the next run, which is looking good and long. Colder temperatures move into the area this evening just before midnight. Unfortunately the cold weather is being delivered with strong gusty winds which will challenge our snowmakers through the next few days. Nevertheless the cold weather is a welcome change that will allow us to really pound out some piles over the next week or so.  Additional Terrain  Nastar trail(looker's left) and Shanty Boy(looker's right)12/1/2022 Lots of fol...