Mid-Winter Update

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 resort.

Black River Basin Operating Hours

We've received quite a bit of feedback regarding the shorter operating hours at Black River Basin this season. Our goal was to enable our team to open one ski area at a time, without having to be in two places at once. Given historically slow visitation in the mornings at The Basin, we chose to start the day a little later there while keeping The Summit opening set for 9:00am. After listening to how much this change has impacted our guests, we will resume opening both mountains at 9:00am beginning on Thursday, February 2nd. Now you'll have to get up just a tad bit earlier to catch those Thursday morning powder turns.

Shuttle Service Enhancement

In addition to opening Black River Basin earlier, we're making some adjustments to the Snowriver Shuttle's schedule to offer more frequent service between the mountains. The shuttle will now depart each mountain roughly every 45 minutes instead of once per hour and will also stop regularly at the Lodge at Jackson Creek to pick up lodging guests and bring them to the mountain of their choice. See the schedule below for the new service times. We hope our guests will find this service more accommodating and that it will encourage more people to embrace multi-mountain ski days while at Snowriver. As always we will continue to evaluate the service and may make additional adjustments as needed.

Lift Operations Improvements

As a skier, nothing bugs me more than not being able to ski part of the mountain because a lift isn't running. Unfortunately, we have had a number of days where operating all of the lifts across both mountains just hasn't been possible. These shortfalls are painful, particularly when they occur on a busy weekend day. The team is taking a few steps to try to improve our reliability going forward. Our primary difficulty has been finding enough employees to operate the various stations at every lift. Getting all 27 lift operators to work by 8:00am on a Saturday morning in the middle of winter can be a real challenge. In an effort to attract additional team members and ensure those we have already, are able to make it to work each day, we are going to begin offering an employee shuttle Thursdays through Sundays. With as many as half of our lift operators needing a ride to work on a given day, I believe the shuttle will be a great benefit to them and will help ensure sufficient staff to operate the lifts. 

For anyone who's skied Jackson Creek Summit (formerly Indianhead) in the past, you know that the T-Bars have only operated a handful of times in recent memory. The primary reason for this is that each T-Bar currently requires 3 people at a minimum to operate it; one at the load, one at the unload, and one in the middle to monitor the towpath. A typical chairlift only needs two, one for the load and one for the unload. So when even a single employee doesn't show up, the T-bars are the first thing to get cut from the schedule. 

In an effort to improve this situation, we've just finished installing cameras at the mid-shack on the East T-Bar. This technology will allow the unload station attendant to monitor the towpath and eliminate the need for an additional attendant in the mid-shack. We've ordered an additional set of cameras to install on the West T-Bar to achieve the same outcome there. I'm excited to see the impact these two changes will have on our ability to open more lifts on more days. 

New Snow Stake Cam

This has been something I've wanted to see in the midwest for years and we finally have one! Whenever it snows I know you all flock to the live cams to watch and see how much we're getting. With our new Snow Stake Cam you'll be able to see exactly how many inches of snowfall and decide when it's time to pull the trigger and head north to beat all the other powder hounds to first chair. Our plan is to clear it off each day at 4:00pm so you can easily tell how much fresh snow will be waiting for you the next morning. Check it out HERE.

40th Year of Ski League

This Wednesday, January 25th marks the start of the 40th year of Ski League at Jackson Creek Summit. I'm thrilled to see this tradition continue and hope it will continue to grow in participation. There is still time to sign up! Stop by the ticket counter at The Summit to register (details below).

Full Season Participant: 

$150 to race all 8 weeks (includes food in Jack's with video of racing and banquet dinner on the final day of racing.) Participants must have a season pass or daily ticket - not included. Local tickets are $47, and midweek non-local are $79 per day.

Guest Racer:

$20 daily race fee with food and footage review after in Jack's.