Skip to main content

A Flurry of Activity

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 with all the latest finishes, my favorite of which is the refinished wood beams. Before the renovations, many of the structural timbers were covered with many layers of thick, dark brown paint. Our painting team devised a custom finish using paint and stain to recreate the natural wood look, which really turned out well. 


Down in the rental shop, the new flooring, walls, and paint have all been completed. The rental team has assembled all of the new racking and started to transfer our fleet from the old rental shop out into the new space. After purchasing rentals at the new ticket windows, guests will come inside, walk down the stairs in the middle of the chalet, and right into the new rental shop. It will be a great rental experience with more space for families to try on boots and receive assistance from our team in the fitting process. Once outfitted, guests can walk right out to the Sugar Hill Learning Area to start their day or meet their instructor at the new Snowsports School desk, right in the rental room. 

On the Mountain

The Mountain Operations team is hard at work installing 52 new trail signs all over The Summit. The signs look really sharp and will improve navigation for our guests and help get us all trained in on the new names for all of our favorite runs. 

The team has also been busy completing all of our preoperational tests and inspections on the Original Double, Aurora Triple, Pinecone Poma, and the Magic Carpet, all of which are on the schedule to operate for opening weekend at Jackson Creek Summit. 

While this week's warmer weather has forced a snowmaking shutdown, we were able to get snow enough snow made last week to be able to open the Sugar Hill Learning Area, Maple, Voyageur's Highway, Superior, and Sundance on Friday the 16th. We're looking forward to the much colder temps arriving this weekend and have guns standing at the ready on Borealis and Alpenglow. With how cold it is forecast to be, I anticipate we'll be moving quickly across the main face, which will set us up nicely for the holiday week.

Winter Weather Returns

OpenSnow is forecasting a great start to our weekend with what looks to be our first true Powder Thursday of the season at Black River Basin. With up to a foot of snow falling before the start of the day on Thursday, I'd be making plans to skip work or school and drop in at The Basin. Our friends to the north at Lutsen are really looking good, with over two feet forecasted for Wednesday into Thursday. If you're one of our Legendary pass holders, now might be a good time to make the trek up to Lutsen.



 


Comments

  1. AnonymousDecember 15, 2022 at 11:33 AM

    Looks great! Thank you for giving us a sneak peak!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A New Era

NEW Legendary Passes I am really excited to share our new season pass products for next winter season. Now honored at all three resorts, our suite of Legendary Passes offer something for everyone at an unbeatable value. For our longtime Snowriver die-hards, the Silver Pass offers you unlimited skiing and riding at Snowriver for only $475 while also providing access to Granite Peak and Lutsten with only 12 blackout dates. Perfect for taking a trip to check out our sister resorts to enjoy all they have to offer. For anyone without a pass for this season, we're offering a $99 spring add-on to ski the rest of this season beginning right away at Granite Peak and Snowriver and Starting April 1st at Lutsen. If you've never enjoyed a bluebird day on the shores of lake superior carving turns down Moose Mountain, I promise you won't be disappointed. Check out our website  for more details. Passes go on sale this Saturday, March 4th.  End of Season Plan As we march toward spring, we...
Post a Comment
Read more

A Good Night

Last night was a good night. We received 10 inches of new snow and had 12 guns running at Black River Basin from midnight on. I went out with the crew this morning and got the first guns of the season running at Jackson Creek Summit. Funny enough the first gun we fired up happened to be labeled gun #1. It feels great to be making snow across both mountains.  As I write, the crew is still working on getting the snowmaking system fully up and running. It will be a good run from now until mid-day tomorrow when we’ll need to shut the guns down for warmer temps. The forecast for the weekend looks very good for snowmaking. We should be able to make a significant amount of snow, getting more terrain closer to opening.  About Powder Thursday  The snow we received in the last 24 hours is fairly wet and heavy, not exactly the UP powder we know and love. While not the best for deep powder runs, this wet snow will help to create a solid base, especially in the glades and on our steep...
Post a Comment
Read more

July Already?!

In the month since I last sat down to chronicle all the activity on the mountain, we have accomplished A LOT. The team from Ruotsalas has completed pouring concrete and backfilled the foundations for Towers 2-10. This leaves Tower 1 and all four terminal foundations to complete but is still a big milestone as it allows us to revegetate the access roads created to reach tower locations on the side of the hill.  The rest of the pours are much more easily accessible via pre-existing and solid roadways, meaning rainy weather is much less of a threat to our forward progress.  Tower 9 foundation is backfilled with grass already growing. -7/8/2023 With the Tower foundations substantially completed, the focus shifts to the top and bottom terminal locations. At the bottom, we are undertaking a massive regrading project to improve skier access to the lift from both the east and the west sides. The loading mound of the former triple lift has been completely removed and redistributed at t...
Post a Comment
Read more