Indoor Jaxx Seating Tomorrow

We are going to carefully try indoor seating tomorrow at Jaxx. Here is what you can expect: 

- Reservations required. Make reservations at the outdoor window. First-come, first serve.  In-person only.
- Table limit of 4 only right now. Yes I know 6 is allowed. It will be 4 max to start. 
- Order at the bar, send one person from your party at a time to order. Please social distance while waiting to order.
- Guest must stay seated at their table, with their group, unless you are ordering or using the restroom.
- If guests are not staying at their table, we will ask your party to leave and go outdoors. 
- Masks must be worn when not seated. 
- One hour time limit per table
- A few more menu options than what's currently available at the outdoor windows.   
- Approx hours 11am-5pm for indoor table service this Saturday - Sunday.  Beyond? Stay tuned. 

We will see how this goes.  Depending on how it goes...it will continue. We are excited to offer this and we hope our loyal Jaxx guests enjoy this as well. 

Again, we are being conservative with the number of tables and taking small steps towards opening Jaxx in order to make our staff and customers safe.  Plus, the spaced out tables will give you a better view of the brand new carpeting! :) 

West Qaud is spinning

All of the new chair hangers have now been installed on the west quad chair and we ran the lift Thursday for a few hours. We plan to run both the west quad and the Lookout quad for most of Friday-Sunday. Again, restraining bars for both lifts should arrive in a week or so. 

Indoor dining update

We now have some limited seating available for dining only in our main chalet. In accordance with the current executive order, there are several guidelines associated with this such as: 

- Table time limits (this is our call, we need to share the limited space available to us) 
- Outside food & beverage is prohibited
- Reservations required (in-person, first come first serve)
- Guests still need to boot up and store personal items in their vehicles. 
- Tables are reserved for those who have lift tickets on.  Again, due to limited capacity, indoor dining is reserved for those who are skiing & snowboarding. 

We are taking a conservative approach right now. Please be patient with us and our staff. Also, very limited capacity is allowed right now. The chalets are not simply "open" like before.   

We are still working on a plan for Jaxx. At some point, we are hoping to offer indoor table service on Wednesday-Friday. Weekends TBD. Stay tuned for updates coming soon. 

Per allowances made by MN Dept of Health, our lower level area in the chalet is now a Warm Up Zone with a capacity of 20. There are chairs but no tables. Food and drink is not allowed in this area. Again, personal items not allowed. 

We are happy and thankful that those who purchase our food and beverage will now have a place to eat and drink it indoors. We will need to take turns to use the limited space that is allowed to us. 

Good News

All of the parts for the West Quad new chair hangers arrived late yesterday afternoon. The team got to work right away and most of the work on installing the new chair hanger parts will get finished today. We are hoping to start running the lift late in the day Thursday. The restraining bars for both lifts should arrive in another week or two. Once they arrive, all restraining bars for both lifts will be installed immediately. 

On a separate topic, we will have an update on indoor seating tomorrow sometime, thanks for your patience. 

Indoor Operations Update

We are planning to add indoor seating for dining starting on Thursday of this week.  Until then, we will only offer seating outside.  We need a few days to hire & train staff and get prepared to offer indoor seating the right way and do it safely for both our guests and staff.  

We are still waiting to learn about how exactly the recent executive changes affect ski areas.  It's challenging when we get these updates mid-late in the week heading into a busy weekend.  Our team is busy right now planning on what our indoor dining plan will look like.  We will have some more updates in the coming days.  There will still be no booting up etc and leaving personal items in the buildings for quite some time.  

The good news is...the skiing & snow conditions are outstanding right now!  

Updated Indoor Dining Guidance

Our team is still combing through the latest MN Executive Order updates that were announced yesterday by the Governor and we are in the process of working with our MN Ski Areas Association leadership to make sure we understand how the new guidance affects ski areas.  Our MSA executive committee will receive further updates from the state on certain aspects of the order and then we will share that information with the rest of state's ski areas.  

When you do see operation updates in the near future, you can assume that you will see very similar guidelines and policies at all MN ski areas because we are all communicating with each other and working together on this. 

It's still early but here are some things that we are considering at Welch and you could probably expect:

Up to 50% indoor dining capacity will be allowed starting next week. Late next week, No more than 6 people at one table. Tables must be at least 6 ft. apart. probably not Monday. Our team needs more time.  

Max of 150 people total in the building is allowed. 
Therefore, we will most likely have policies like the following: 

- All guests in the chalet must have a lift ticket
- Very limited seating, seating reserved for on-site dining only. Carry-on food and beverage will not be allowed indoors. (we may have to require reservations) 
- No more than 6 people at one table. Tables must be at least 6 ft. apart. 
- Time limits for table use.  Again, only 150 are allowed at once in the building. We will all have to share the limited indoor space to warm up, eat etc.  
- Tables and chairs cannot be moved. 
- All personal items must be left in your vehicle
- Your vehicle is still your chalet, all guests will still be required to boot up & get ready at your vehicle. (This will most likely continue to be the policy for the entire season) 
- Face coverings required at all times when not eating. Social distancing required.
- Indoor guests will be required to be seated at all times (per executive order)

Other things we are "considering"... 

- Table service with reservations required at Jaxx on most weekdays.  Weekend operations TBD.  We will at least continue the window/patio service.  There will be some table service available on certain days.  Stay tuned. 

- After January 14th, we can start up our adult race leagues and NASTAR.  Stay tuned for upcoming updates. 

Again, we are still receiving all of this information from the state of MN and we are still waiting on further information.  Stay tuned for more.  Thanks for your patience, the WV team is busy working on a plan to put these continued changes into action. 

West Quad Chair Update

 We are hoping to receive the new chairs for the west quad soon.  They may arrive late this week, but it could be early next week.  As soon as the chairs arrive, our team will get the west quad ready, perform their final tests, and get that lift up and running ASAP. 

We are hoping to open the Back Bowl sometime next weekend. Snowmaking has been happening back there for weeks, and we are getting close, really close. 

We know that some of the lift lines have gotten a little long but please keep these things in mind: 

1. It's the holiday week.
2. The weather has been near perfect for skiing & snowboarding
3. Due to covid, we are seeing more singles and doubles riding on 4-person chairs.  Which is fine.  But during the holidays & weekends on nice days, it can extend lines. 

Today, I myself rode the Lookout quad chair several times and clocked the time spent in line.  I started my clock as soon as I skied up to the end of the line and lifted by face covering. The shortest time was about 3.5 minutes.  The longest, about 5.5 minutes. Folks, that's not bad.   I purposely road the lift at the height of our crowd today.   

I am really proud of all of our staff, they are working their tails off to try and give everyone the best experience they possibly can.  Winter just started, we have a lot of skiing left.