Thursday, November 8, 2018

A Great First Night

How sweet it is to be able to start up snowmaking on November 7th.  Our crew did a great job last night.  We started up around 8:45pm, my oldest daughter turned on the first gun herself, yesterday was her 12th birthday.  Life is good when you can start up Welch Village's snowmaking system for the year on your birthday.  Guns are still roaring now (about 9am) and hope to keep them on as long as possible this morning.  Conditions were pretty good last night, it stayed overcast all night which affects humidity, temps, and the amount of snow we can make.  However, the forecast looks awesome for the next few says and are going to take full advantage.  The best part of last night was the opportunity to test some big improvements we made to our snowmaking system this past summer & fall.  Those improvements included improving the pump station & area, and the piping system located at the river.  We also added and improved pipe around the ski area.  So far...so good with everything. 🤞 You never know how snowmaking capital investments are going to pan out until you put them under a heavy test like we are now.  Still too early to talk opening date...for now....

Turning on the first gun of 2018/19 with Emmett, the Snowmaking Manager himself! 









Wednesday, July 11, 2018

New SLOW ZONE AREA - Mountain Bike Guests Please Read

You will notice some added Slow signs towards the bottom of our downhill MTB trail system.
From now on, this will be a SLOW ZONE for ALL mountain bike guests.  THE SLOW ZONE begins and ends where all of our trails converge into one trail.  A picture is posted below of where it begins. 

We realize that all riders have different versions of the term, slow.  So please error on the side of caution and slow down more than you think you need to.  This SLOW ZONE will be monitored by our staff and bike patrol.  Riders going too fast will be asked to slow down.  Riders who choose to not slow down could be asked to leave the bike park.

Why the SLOW ZONE? 

~ We are starting to see more riders, which is great, and we are trying to be pro-active with this new policy.  There was NOT an incident that caused this.  The overall high speed of many riders in this area is promoting this.

~ The SLOW ZONE is where ALL of our trails converge for a brief period.  Therefore, ALL types of riders are on the trail here together.  ALL ages and ALL abilities of riders are riding here. Please respect all riders and help offer them a great experience at the Welch MTB Park.

~ Later this summer, we will begin to offer MTB lesson programs.  At some point, you may come  across a small group of students and their coach.  Please slow down to avoid a collision with our lesson guests and to make beginners feel welcome.

~ The only way we are going to grow this sport and grow the Welch Village MTB Park  is by ensuring that we all stay as safe as possible.  Let's give the kids, the families, and the new riders a good experience so we can grow this MTB Park.  Welch Village has been doing this for over 50+ years with skiers and snowboarders.  We want to do the same thing with downhill mountain biking.

~ If you want to Send It...great!....Send it before the SLOW ZONE.

~ As we expand, we hope to add another way down for advanced riders.

*We also brought in a couple loads of fresh clay for the large berm that leads into the smaller bridge and added a smaller berm after this bridge. This should make this area much more ride-able for more riders.

Thank you for abiding by this new policy regarding the SLOW ZONE & Thank you for supporting the new Welch Village MTB Park efforts.  

Take it slow and help us create a great atmosphere for all riders.   A great experience for all riders here is much more important to us than your Strava points :) 

See you on the trails! 
Peter Zotalis, President/GM



Friday, May 25, 2018

MTB Update: New Trail Building & Trail Work

Lots to talk about mountain bike fans!

It's almost like we went from winter straight to summer around here and and as result, most of us down here at Welch, including this guy, has been outside getting trails ready and other things ready for MTB season.  So here is a quick rundown of where we are at:

Trail work
Our crew has been out getting all of last year's trails ready for this year.  Happy to say they survived their first MN winter pretty well!  However, we still have some work to do make sure they are up to snuff for opening day...we want them to look & ride as good as they did last year.  I just walked all of the new trails today to see how they held up with their first test last night, storms w/and 1.5 inches of rain.  They held up great, I was very happy :)

New Trails
Pathfinder Trail Building is about 2 weeks into trail construction already and we love what we see so far.  Here are the new trail projects for this year involving Pathfinder:

~   Completely new re-route of all all the mountain bike trails on the far eastern side of the park.  For those of you familiar with our slopes or trails from last year, we re-routed all the trails off the ski run Harley's Hollow and into a big ravine to the west.  The trails will only cut across Harley's one time via a really big (a fun to ride!) berm.  All riders will converge on this new and wide trail and cross the ravine a couple different times via 2, possibly 3 wooden bridges.

~ New Green Trail.  This trail is nearly complete and it looks really, really, awesome.  The goal was simple, build a trail for all ages & all ability levels.  Last year, the end of the green trail Joy Ride ended up being a little too advanced for novices.  We are confident that this trail will be much more accessible for varying abilities.  Pretty sure my wife and 3 daughters will spend most of the summer on this trail.  Name for this trail is TBD.  Stay tuned.

~ Eagle Eye: Technical Blue Trail with wood and rock features.  This will be a trail that avid mountain bikers will love at first sight.  This will be a trail that is unique to this area.  For those who like to send it...this will be your new favorite!

~ New skills B-Lines.  More info coming soon on this project coming later!

Opening Day & Passes
Opening Day is Saturday June 16th; season passes are on sale now at welchvillage.com

New! MTB Lessons this year...
We are hosting a PMBIA MTB coach accreditation event at the end of June.  We will have several certified MTB coaches after this event.  MTB lesson info will be released very soon.

Below are a bunch of picture of trail work and new trail construction.  More coming next week...have a great Memorial Weekend!
















Friday, January 19, 2018

Bumps, Dud's, and Snow!

The temps are finally warm enough for our snowcats to push a little snow around and start some moguls.  We also have fresh snow in the forecast...perfect time to start up some moguls!  I am a big mogul fan personally.  I skied some great moguls at A-basin last week.  Moguls fans are well aware that our Minnesota Moguls are different than those in the mountains...we just don't receive enough fresh natural snow on a regular basis like mountain ski resorts receive.  We are going to try something new this year.  For this weekend, there will be a mogul field on Wild Finale (far skier's right of Lookout).  We are getting high praise from a host of skiers and riders who are loving Dud's Dream groomed.  Dud's Dream also provides another intermediate slope on the east side which is relieving some congestion on the popular Harley's Hollow.  Having Dud's groomed right now is almost like adding a brand new slope.  So we are going to leave Dud's groomed for a little longer.  We may put moguls on Dud's, we may not.  At some point in late February, we are going to try moguls on Dan's Dive.  Hopefully, all of our guests will embrace these changes and enjoy them.  I will also need help tomorrow afternoon on Wild Finale breaking in the new bumps....who is with me?  I bet this pictured below will be there....

By the way...with the snow coming overnight Sunday and into Monday.  Those of you who work on Monday will still have a chance to ski the fresh snow. We don't open until 3pm on Monday and I have given our grooming crew instructions to leave a lot ungroomed.  Even if you show up in the evening, these areas should be less "skied out".   Join us at 3pm to ski some fresh snow.  We may also leave some spots ungroomed past Monday which will create additional natural mogul areas.