Opening Plan

Our team has repositioned all of the portable snow guns and we are gearing up for another round of snowmaking weather that should begin overnight tonight and last until Friday morning sometime. Thursday looks to be our first 24+ period of snowmaking of the season so far. 

We will not be open this weekend.  We are looking at the end of next week & weekend to open things up for the season.  Again, we are using the same pre-season snowmaking & opening plan as last year.  When we open, we hope to offer as many chairlifts and the best early-season skiing/riding experience possible. We also want to be careful with the warm temps this weekend and next week.  If we wait to blade out and push around the piles, we will save more snow and offer a better experience next weekend. 

Right now, we are making snow on the terrain park area & rope tow, Heidi's Hollow, Fowl Play, Sweeny/ Jon Jon, Paul's Trail, Long Way Home, Lookout, and Bakkelykka.  We also have some tower guns running on Harley's Hollow on the east side but we are being careful not to impact the final stages of the new lift project.  We are hoping to start up more east side snowmaking during the cold snap after this one. 

A special thank you to the members of our team who will taking turns, working shifts, running our snowmaking operations on Thanksgiving day and evening.  When you take your first turns of 2021-22, think of them. 

From all of us at Welch Village, we hope you have a Happy Thanksgiving.  We give thanks for all of you, our employees, and the opportunity to provide you and your family with lasting winter memories again this coming season.  It's a joy to bring you another season at Welch Village. 

A nice cold evening in the Village

Technically this was the third evening of snowmaking but last night was our first REAL night of snow production. The low was about 12 degrees for a while early this morning and the winds finally calmed down which allowed our team to make some piles. These photos were taken around 2pm this afternoon. 

We know some ski areas are "opening".  We have decided to take the same approach to opening this year as we did last year.  That is...we will wait to open until we can give all of you a great experience with several great runs and multiple lifts. We want you to have a great experience on opening day and we simply need a few more good cold nights to accomplish that.  More terrain, longer runs, and more lifts on opening weekend requires a couple more evenings of good snowmaking conditions.  If we get more nights like last night, opening day will come sooner. 

The weather warms up again Tuesday and Wednesday before good snowmaking temps arrive again on Thanksgiving Day.  Right now, we are not too optimistic about being open this coming weekend.  But when we do open, the Village will be the place to be.  

More updates coming soon...

We are ready

Our snowmaking team is waiting and ready for snowmaking temperatures to arrive.  They have been testing the system, making repairs, and getting everything ready for the past several weeks.
All of the portable guns were placed on the hill the past few days and we are standing by.  It looks like a decent window of temps could arrive late Sunday evening and perhaps a couple of brief windows of opportunity could happen again next week. 

Stay tuned...

  

Splicing Day!

 A big item on the new chairlift construction list was checked off the list today.  A 6-person crew from Dopplemayr teamed up today with a Welch crew & led by Mountain Rope Service to splice the new haul rope on the Cannon Valley Quad.  Splicing the haul rope on any chairlift is always a cool experience.  

Bottom Terminal

The bottom terminal and control buildings are being constructed as we speak. Just about everything we need to finish the lift project is onsite. We are still waiting for chairs, they are still on their boat ride. Stay tuned.