Once we get through Community Day, I feel like all eyes immediately turn to winter, and with it snowmaking. That’s usually accompanied internally by, “Wait, we’re opening in a month?! There’s still so much to do!” That goes double in a year where many of us were or still are working remotely and we’re still in the process of finalizing all our operational changes for the season. But I’m actually quite optimistic for this winter if Community Day was any indication of guest enthusiasm and behavior. I was pleasantly surprised with what a great crowd we had over Community Day. It was also extremely encouraging to see how well guests were being about social distancing and mask usage. That makes me hopeful that things can operate smoothly this winter. But it’s going to take all of us to make it happen.
Hopefully you saw the gift Mother Nature dropped on us over the weekend. In what can be officially deemed our first snowfall of the season, I think we all received a wakeup call on just how close November 21st really is.
But before we get there, we need to start cranking out snow. Based on forecasts right now, it’s looking like we may get a window for snowmaking starting November 4th. We’re still about two weeks out, though, so that may change. When we do turn the guns on, we’ll be looking at focusing on the same terrain we did last season. That includes Snowball and Spring Fling off of the Valley House Quad. It also includes Pushover, Sugarbear Road, and First Time off of the Gate House Quad (and Welcome Mat).
As we talked about last season, the goal with this snowmaking plan is to get terrain for all abilities open as soon as possible. If the weather doesn’t cooperate, maybe we have to readjust. But in a perfect world we like to get those three lifts spinning as early as we can. The other obvious benefit to this strategy is the ability to spread people out. By focusing on multiple lifts, we can minimize crowds through choke points and lift lines on any one lift.
I’ll plan to keep updating you on the blog of our progress, but for the most up-to-date information you can always visit the snow report.