It's Been Awhile

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 get the snowmaking crew trained into their new roles just in time for the busy holiday week. 

Thank YOU

The week between Christmas and New Years Day is often the busiest and most stressful time of the year for our staff and in turn, you, our guests. I want to extend my thanks to all of those guests who came to visit us over the past couple weeks. With all of the improvements, renovations, upgrades and changes we've undertaken, there have certainly been some speed-bumps along the way. I'm so proud of the team and the efforts they've put in to learn a new way of doing business. These things aren't easy, but I'm confident that with each passing day our ability to serve our guests will only continue to improve. I can't wait to see what the team will be able to accomplish over the next year and beyond. Thanks to those of you who continue to enjoy the ride with us. 

Terrain Parks 

One of the bumps in the road that we felt was the lack of high quality terrain parks during the holidays. With the challenges of the storm, a few key employees being out sick and a lack of staff in general, we just couldn't pull off a quality terrain park offering in time. Nevertheless, our newly minted Parks and Trails Crew was hard at work over the past week at Black River Basin. They were able to get four rail features set, two small jumps built on Just Cuz, along with two medium jumps in the rope park.

Up Tube in lower Just Cuz - 1/6/2023

Tonight we are working to enhance the features on the FamilyX Course to create a fun, lap-able run for the whole family. Once we get the parks up and running to our satisfaction at The Basin, our focus will shift over to The Summit where we plan to build a fun entry level park for the whole family. I'm looking forward to see what the crew comes up with.

Racing Returns

We have a number of races coming up in the next few weeks that we are busy preparing for. Our first race of the season will be the NC Conference Meet on January 10th. Races will be held on FIS and Sundance throughout the day on Tuesday. Then Friday the 13th through Sunday the 15th we'll be hosting the Shelly Glover Memorial races across both mountains. These races will be held on FIS and Borealis at The Summit and Shanty Girl/Nastar at The Basin. John (Mt. Manager), Klaus (Race Director) and myself spent a few hours out on the race runs checking depths to ensure we have enough snow to set up the necessary safety fencing and race gates. To quote Klaus, spoken slowly with a thick bavarian accent, "Plennttty of shnow." Nearly everywhere we checked had 3-4' of solid base with only a few spots needing some touchups from the snowcat. 

Klaus and John checking depth on skier's left of Shanty Girl. Black River Basin - 1/6/2023

My Favorite Time of Day

The view out my office window this evening was a reminder of the awesome privilege it is to spend my work days at the ski area. I often forget during the hustle and bustle of the day, just how neat it is to work at the resort. But at 4 O'clock when the lifts slow to a stop, the patrollers sign off for the day, the cats crawl out of the barn and the sun starts to set, I remember what it's all about. Everything we do is all about giving as many people as possible a little slice of the mountain's magic.