BEN'S BLOG

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...