Opening Update

Keep this in mind when reading this. No one wants to ski at Welch Village this weekend more than I do.   Ok, there is maybe one person maybe who wants to ski this weekend more than me...my 88-year old grandfather Leigh Nelson.  You probably know where this conversation is headed...

Although our snowmaking crew did an incredible job in the past two nights with challenging conditions, we will not be opening for the season anytime this week.  We are now hoping to open sometime between Dec. 2nd-4th.  We want to share this news with you now so you can go ahead and make your plans for the upcoming weekend.

Here is a summary of where we are at:

• Even though we had 20 degree temperatures for a couple of nights, we also had to deal with winds from the east. When the wind comes from the east, it's hard to use the guns on our key opening weekend slopes because the guns are located on the west ends of the runs (Lookout, Fowl Play, Heidi's Hollow, Harley's Hollow etc).  When we have just an east wind of just 5mph, the snow blows out of the guns and then right back into the guns. 

• With some wet and warmer weather arriving the next couple of days, we will save the snow we have already made by not grooming it and leaving it in piles.   

• The new erosion control ditch for the new terrain park area and beginner slope requires more snowmaking than previous years.  It takes more snow to fill that ditch than it did a couple of years ago.

• We are committed to providing our guests with a quality skiing/riding experience on opening day with more vertical, high snow quality, and chairlifts to ride in addition to just a rope tow.

I took a hike this morning and you will see that our crew has done an amazing job in a short amount of time.  Hopefully the weather will cooperate and we can add to this soon.  Remember, all of this hard work by our crew comes at the end of an historically warm November.  

We give thanks for this brief window of snowmaking that we did receive.  We wish all of you a Happy Thanksgiving and we can't wait to open the slopes of Welch Village for all of you very soon...

Snowmaking has started!

Our crew officially started making snow Saturday around 2pm or so.  The snowguns were still on Sunday morning but the conditions are starting to become a challenge.  The winds are switching around to the east which poses some issues and the temperatures are rising.  The forecast for the next week doesn't look that great but we will be ready to make snow if we get the chance. We will continue snowmaking operations as long as we can today and hopefully can resume operations again this evening.  We are concentrating our efforts right now on Lookout, Long Way Home, Fowl Play, and the terrain park area but there are snowguns running in other locations as well.  It's still too early to project an opening date.  We'll know a lot more on Monday or Tuesday.  Stay tuned....winter is back at Welch Village!

Mountain Bike Park Master Planning this week

Scott Linnenburger from Colorado based Kay-Linn Enterprises is here this week designing our master plan for mountain biking.  This time of year, Scott is able to really see our terrain and acreage with all the leaves off the trees. And Scott likes what he sees!  In just 2 days, he has covered just about our entire property and he is very impressed with what we have here and the possibilities for mountain biking.  If you like mountain biking, know someone who likes mountain biking, or would like to get into mountain biking yourself one day....you should be excited.

On a winter side note...it looks like the weather really changes by the end of this week.  We'll let you know asap when snowmaking starts!