Friday, September 27, 2013

Breaking Ground

We broke ground this week on our large new maintenance shop project.  This will be a two-year project.  This fall, we are hauling fill in order to get the new shop facility about 6 feet up and above the flood plain level.  We may also build the new storage building for our snow guns this fall.  Next year, we will not only build the new state of the art maintenance facility but we also remove the old shop which will make the whole area by Lookout and Bakke look very different than it does now.
 
Next season, we are planning to have the new road to Jaxx Chalet begin here.  

 
 



Site of the new Maintenance Facility.  Notice how you can see all the way to East Chalet.


Thursday, September 26, 2013

This is Red Wing...

Even though Welch Village is in Welch and the address says Welch, we like to say that we belong to the Red Wing Community.  Red Wing is our town and it's a beautiful town 12 months out of the year.  It's especially breath-taking this time of the year.   I would encourage you to visit Red Wing on one of your future visits to Welch Village or make a special trip and spend a night at the historic St. James Hotel, visit the world's biggest boot at Red Wing Shoes, take in a play at the Sheldon Theatre, or have dinner at one of many fine restaurants.  Our location in this unique and scenic part of the state is one of the things that sets us apart from a lot of ski areas in and around the Twin Cities.  But at the same time, we are only 45 minutes from the airport!  Check out this great Youtube video from MrPortauthority.

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Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Fall Projects

It's definitely beginning to look like fall around here.  It's also beginning to feel like fall too with cooler temps at night, about a month from now we will be getting ready to make snow.  We are busy with our new maintenance shop project hauling and packing fill in order to get the new facility above the flood plain level.  We may wait until next summer to build the new shop and allow the large about of fill to settle over the winter.  Our crew is also performing routine maintenance of all of our chairlifts and as well as our snowmaking system.  We are planning to make some simple upgrades to the Jaxx Chalet and Bar, Black Diamond Bar, and our office area.  Our IT department is also working on a new method for members to get their lift tickets without the use of a season pass card.  This new convenient system will require only your thumb print!  Fall is here and winter is on the way...it's snowing in Colorado and several areas out there will be making snow within a week.
  

Tuesday, September 10, 2013

Fall D-team picnic honoring Patrick Peters

This past weekend Welch Village and others honored Patrick Peters at the annual fall D-team picnic.  After 20 years, Patrick is stepping down from his position as the director of our Saturday junior ski racing program.  The D-team program, which Patrick was so instrumental in building, symbolizes everything that is special and unique about the sport of skiing.  Today, there are countless youth hockey, soccer, baseball etc. leagues that require huge time time requirements on parents to watch their kids play in tournaments and league games.  Skiing on the other hand, allows the entire family to participate and enjoy the sport together all of the time.  That's what makes our D-team program (and others in our area) so rare.  Most, if not all, of the parents of D-team athletes in both our Saturday and Sunday programs ski themselves.  Patrick and our other coaches have built a community of passionate skiing families.  Pictured below is Patrick with a group of coaches from the picnic this past weekend.  Thank you Patrick for helping to build such a great program for so many families in the past, present, and future.