Opening Day, Snowmaking, and a Heaven’s Gate Update

We’ve rounded the corner and are in the final sprint. Skis are tuned. Passes are purchased. Programs are booked. Stoke is overflowing. You’re ready, we know that, and now you’re probably wondering where things stand on your favorite mountain. Right now, we’re all hands on deck getting ready for the season and just as excited for it as all of you are.

The current plan, weather dependent, is to open on Saturday, November 23^rd. If everything goes right and Mother Nature cooperates, we might even be able to open on Friday the 22^nd instead.

Launch Plan

In line with the last several years, we’re focusing on a similar launch plan for early season terrain. Once we see a solid window for snowmaking temps, which right now looks like it might be November 7^th, we’ll start by focusing on Gate House terrain including Pushover, Slowpoke, Sugarbear Road, Lower Hot Shot, and First Time. Why Gate House terrain? As we’ve said in the past it’s for a couple reasons. First is that we like to get terrain for all skier levels open as soon as possible. This allows us to get some beginner/intermediate terrain open right away. And because that terrain is inherently less steep, it requires less snowmaking to get open. That can be pretty important with temps so variable in November these days and makes it a safer bet for getting open on time.

From there, we’ll move to making snow on the Valley House side. This will be including Snowball, Spring Fling, Valley House Traverse and Heaven’s Gate Traverse. Coinciding with that we’ll also begin snowmaking at Mt. Ellen. Focus will be up high based on temperatures including Rim Run, Elbow, and FIS (taking advantage of our brand new pumps at mid-station), before moving down the mountain. Snowmaking on Inverness will also be a priority early season, especially with a new drive and controls in that lift ready to roll for the season.

Heaven’s Gate Progress

The next pod of snowmaking terrain will be upper mountain around Heaven’s Gate. Speaking of that lift, progress marches onward on the new Heaven’s Gate Quad. Doppelmayr has been hard at work getting the new quad installed. While there were a few delays related to flying conditions and concrete pouring, things are still progressing well. At this point all the towers are in, the concrete is done, the haul rope is up, snowmaking pipe has been installed, and all remaining parts have been delivered.

Next up we’ll be splicing the rope on November 7^th . Then we’ll be hanging chairs, installing lift shacks, and moving the summit patrol shack back into place. The plan is to have our Acceptance Test (essentially when Doppelmayr hands over control of the lift) the week of November 18^th.

Right now the safest guess for opening Heaven’s Gate terrain is likely early December. Though, there’s certainly a possibility that it ends up being a little bit earlier or a little bit later. That’s actually pretty normal in a historic context. Looking at the past five years, Heaven’s Gate opened on December 5^th, December 9^th, November 24^th, December 11^th, and November 28^th. Our projections put us right within that range. Remember, even once the lift is ready, we need to make snow on that terrain to have it skiable. We should be able to start making snow up there the week following the Acceptance Test. We’ll continue to keep you updated on that front based on how the final stage of the lift project goes and subsequent snowmaking operations to get that terrain opened.