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.

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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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.
  

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.  

A Harmless Sales Message

Every now and then, it's possible that I may include a harmless sales message in this blog.  My goal with these sales messages is to not to give you "the pitch" but to provide some of our insight as management on how we arrive at some of these decisions and offer our view in sales & marketing.

We kickoff our Fall Pass Sale this Sunday and we are excited to announce that there is a new pass lineup with new prices and even a new option to purchase your pass.  You will notice we have released a brand new pass option called the Millennial Pass.  This pass replaces the College Pass.  The College Pass was popular for many years but sales were beginning to flatten in recent years and we wanted to expand this type of pass to a larger audience.  Millennials are also known as "Gen Y" and usually regarded as anyone in their 20's.  So, we set the age range for the Millennial Pass for anyone age 19-29.

Our goal this fall was to make the price of the fall passes as attractive as possible this without compromising what people paid for passes back in the spring.  We think that $249 for an unlimited season pass is a heck of a deal.  We also think our prices for the Family Pass and Fill-a-Quad passes are also pretty impressive.  In case you haven't already noticed, we value our guests who make the decision to buy a pass or like we call it, become a Member.  That's why we also try to provide some quality member benefits like the member/guest tickets, rentals, discounts on lessons and more.  We are also happy to announce that our members will receive the same $20 discount on lift tickets at Lutsen this year.  We are working on finalizing Welch Village member benefits with at least one other western resort as well. 

New this season, we have added a Payment Plan option when making your season pass purchase.  Simply click the Payment Plan option, and you will see what your down payment would be for your pass and a payment schedule to pay off the rest of your pass.  Our hope was to make a season pass possible for even more of our guests.   

We hope you and your family will consider a membership at Welch Village this winter.  If you have already purchased a membership, I offer a sincere Thank you!  School starts this week, which means snowmaking isn't far off.  We will get those guns fired up for you as soon as possible because even our management staff is getting the itch to make some turns!   

MSAA Tradeshow

Every summer, the first week of August, a few of us attend the Midwest Ski Areas Association Summer Trade show and Conference.  This year's event was held last week at Alpine Valley Resort in Wisconsin near Milwaukee.  This event is a great source of information and networking for those in the ski and snowboard industry.  It's conferences like this where we receive a lot of our information regarding legislative and safety issues affecting our industry as well information from vendors on the latest equipment & supplies.  We try to spread out of our small team of attendees at this conference every year to attend as many of informational sessions as possible.  The topics of these sessions include things like marketing trends, legal issues, chairlift safety and overall guest safety, snow making, grooming, rental operations, terrain parks, ski school and much more.  Above all, these events are great networking events for people like me where we get to talk with other ski area operators from around the Midwest, hear about their season last year, what worked, what didn't work, what new things are planned for this year and so on.  We are all genuine in attempting to learn from each other because we all have a vested interest in growing the sport of skiing and snowboarding.     Below are some photos from the conference so all of you can see a glimpse of what it's like to attend a conference like this.  Pay special attention to the photo of the big red Piston Bully Winch Cat groomer because you will see that exact machine grooming the slopes of Welch this year!

Summertime in the Welch Valley

When it comes to summer tourism and recreation in our great state of Minnesota, most people instantly think about the lakes country to the north.  We like to think here in the Welch Valley that we have sort of a hidden gem in the summertime.  We recently dodged another flood this weekend thanks to 8+ inches of rain in the Faribault area.  When it rains that much in the Faribault, Owatonna, or Northfield area we get a little nervous because all of that water eventually makes it's way here via the Cannon River.  But, when the Cannon River is not flooding, it provides a beautiful addition to what we think is a unique and scenic area of our state and the entire Midwest.  I would encourage anyone who has only visited our area to ski or snowboard in the winter to stop down on a spring, summer or fall afternoon to enjoy what the area has to offer especially if you like to bike, canoe, kayak, ride motorcycle, fly-fish etc.  The Cannon Valley Trail is a wonderfully maintained paved bike path that stretches from Cannon Falls to Red Wing.  The trail takes you through meadows, wooded areas, and for several miles right along the Cannon River.   If you prefer something on and in the water, visit the Welch Mill Canoe and Tube downtown Welch.  They rent tubes, canoes, and kayaks.  When you're finished with your bike ride, water adventure, or fishing excursion...be sure to stop by the Trout Scream Cafe in downtown Welch for ice cream. So if you don't feel like fighting traffic northbound to the lakes country some weekend in the summer, come down to Welch and bring your bike, your fly rod, and/or your swimming suit.  Enjoy your summer... (snowmaking is just a few months away!)

A crowded Welch Mill Canoe & Tube on a warm 4th of July.

 The Cannon Valley Trail looking West

 A view of Welch Village from Heidi's Hollow

 The Cannon Valley Trail looking east

 A view of the Belle Creek from Hwy 7 in betweenWelch and Vasa

 Thunderheads building above Bakke & Chicken