BEN'S BLOG

The Big Day After months of work by countless individuals, the time finally came to get the new towers out of the parking lot and stand them up on their foundations. We considered using a conventional crane to lift the towers into place, but the steep terrain would have made it very difficult to move the towers into position and extensive excavation and dozing would have been required to build a crane pad at each tower site. Being that Lutsen is building a lift this summer as well, we choose to partner to split the cost of mobilizing a helicopter from out west to make things a little more efficient for both of us. Saturday, July 22nd, after assisting our friends across the lake with pouring concrete for the new Raptor Express, Brian from Timberline Helicopters pointed his UH 60 Blackhawk across the lake and headed straight for Snowriver. He and his crew touched down here in the main parking lot just after the storm clouds cleared, making for a perfect dust-free landing.  The Timberline

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 the bottom

With all of the snow melted and the hill dried out, the team from Ruotsala has focused their efforts on getting each of the tower foundations poured. The new lift will have 10 total towers along the line. Tower 1 sits immediately outside the bottom terminal, and tower 10 is just downhill from the top terminal. Those two tower bases will be excavated and poured alongside their respective terminal foundations. For now, our work has begun at tower 9, near the summit, and is progressing downhill as the access road gets built.  The first step of each tower build is to excavate the tower location down to the precise elevation required according to the size and height of the footing. Once excavated and elevations are verified, soil bearing analysis must be completed to ensure the soil conditions are suitable for the new tower to be placed on. Our friends at Coleman Engineering out of Ironwood perform a series of tests in each excavation to evaluate the soil's ability to bear weight. Once

 As I walk around the mountains, it's starting to feel like I'm in the middle of one of those reality TV shows where a new home gets built in a week. In just over a month since our closing day, we've gotten started on too many projects to count in all areas of the resort. Without 100s of volunteers, we'll take a bit longer to get done. Still, I'm confident that Snowriver will feel like a totally different place when our guests return this fall. Here's a quick run-through of what we've been up to.  Voyageur Express Preparation The mountain crew had a monumental task on their hands to dismantle, remove and scrap three chairlifts made up of over 5 miles of steel cable, 65 steel towers, 6 terminal structures, and 3 concrete vaults. Once all the towers had been cut and hauled up to the overflow lot, work began on torching them apart to allow them to be loaded onto trailers for the trip to the scrap yard. To date, we've hauled 160,000 pounds of metal to the sc

Wrap it up In the few days since we've closed for the season a ton of work has already gone into disassembling and removing the Quad, Triple, and Double to make way for construction to begin on the Voyageur Express Six.  First, crews gently lowered the Original Double's haul rope (wire cable that holds the chairs) onto 4x4s. The wood will protect the rope as it is reeled up over the ground keeping it in perfect condition so that it can be used to replace the current haul rope on the Bear Creek Double later this summer.  The Original Double's haul rope awaiting the final trip around the bull wheel. - 04/07/2023 Spooling up fifteen thousand pounds of cable stretched out over six thousand feet is no small task, so we enlisted the help of JT and his son Jake from Mountain Wire Rope Service. They came all the way from Pennsylvania with their custom-made spooling machine in tow to help us out. Once the spooling machine was set up, the splice was cut right at the marriage, and one

  Sunday, April 2nd was a bittersweet day. Many longtime skiers of the resort, including myself, took their final rides on the main double lift. As I took one last slow ride up the mountain, I couldn't help but notice the quiet, calming nature of the lift. Having carried skiers for 62 years, the machine feels as much a part of the mountain as the trees that shape the runs.  The energy of the day felt more like a memorial tribute than a fun day on the slopes as people came to pay their respects to the lift that was integral to so many of their great memories. At 4:27pm the original 1961 double chairlift carried its last passengers for the final time. Rita, a patroller on the mountain for 40 years called the last chair and rode up in front of Lee, the longtime operator of the lift, and his daughter who learned to ski on these slopes. I was lucky enough to capture the moment in the video above.  The very next day, work began to remove chairs from the lift, starting the long road to co

It is officially spring at Snowriver, but while the calendar calls for spring we still have TONS of snow on the mountain. After a few additional feet over the past week, we've now crossed the 200" mark for this season. This is just about two feet more than our annual average for snowfall. This means we'll have great spring skiing conditions right up through the end of the season.  Our plan remains to close down the Jackson Creek Summit side after April 2nd. This early closure will allow us to begin the removal of the Original Double to make way for construction of the new Voyageur Express which is slated to begin May 1st. Over at Black River Basin, we plan to keep things rolling through Easter Sunday. We'll run the lifts from Friday the 7th through Sunday the 9th from 9am-4pm to finish off the season. If conditions and skier demand support reopening for a bonus weekend, we may reopen on April 15th and 16th. Stay tuned to our email newsletter and social media channels f

The quad's chairs coming up the line for the final time - 3/10/2023 Our maintenance crew has begun the process of dismantling lifts to prepare for the installation of the new Voyageur Express this summer. Over the past week, the team has been removing chairs one by one from the Voyager Quad using a special tool called a de-tensioner. Riblet lifts attach the chairs to the haul rope with an internal clip inserted into the core. To attach the clips, the cable needs to be pulled together and expanded so the core can be cut out and the clip inserted in its place. The photos below illustrate how this process works. Once inserted, the rope is released and the tension of the cable holds the clip in place.    To remove the chairs from the line, the reverse is done. The rope is expanded, the clip is pulled out and replaced with a small piece of plastic core to retain the integrity of the rope, then it is closed back up again. The quad has 154 chairs with two clips per chair, meaning the crew

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&#

The first half of February has been uncharacteristically warm here at Snowriver. Only a few inches of snow have fallen so far this month, but despite the warmer temps we're still holding onto a solid two feet of base across the mountains. The skiing has been fantastic with sunny skies and plenty of corduroy to carve up. If you haven't made it up to see us yet this season, the next couple of months are looking prime. We have ski-in/ski-out lodging available on most weekends for the rest of the season, with great specials in place to make your ski vacation even more affordable.  Last night's rain was less than desirable and unfortunately led us to close the ski area for the day (2/15/2023). Without ample time for the snow to drain out and set up again, we didn't want to send our machines out to lock in that moisture. Giving the snowpack the day off will provide for better conditions upon reopening on Thursday for the holiday weekend. Mother nature has already switched ove

Today we cross over the halfway mark on this 2022-2023 winter season. Hard to believe it's half over already, but I like to focus on the half still remaining. In a lot of ways, I feel the best parts of our season are yet to come. Spring skiing has always been my favorite, even beating out a mid-winter powder day in my eyes and we're poised to host a hearty helping of spring turns this year. With half the season left to go, the team and I continue to field feedback and make operational adjustments to continue providing the best possible experience each and every day. New Enhanced Teaching Terrain Charlie and Bryan collaborate in the cat. - Monday, January 30th, 2023 Brian from our snow school has partnered with our cat crew this week to shape up some really neat terrain in our Sugar Hills Learning Area. They've built a mini half-pipe and three large banked turns. These features will be used to introduce new skiers to the snow in more intuitive ways. Rather than having to exp