Hello friends! Traditionally summer is a time when we take a bit of a step back from our busy, winter schedules and you may not hear as much from us. This summer, I’m hoping to change that!
To be completely frank, we’ve been fielding a staggering number of questions about the future of Snow Ridge. I want to come right out and say, Snow Ridge isn’t going anywhere, and neither is my family. After what can easily be described as our most challenging year yet, we have weathered the literal and figurative storm, and we are more motivated than ever. Not only to keep the business open, but to continue expanding and building upon our vision for Snow Ridge.
We have a lot going on behind the scenes this summer, and I’d love to share some of that with you so you know what’s happening around the resort.
First off, we’re currently working on clearing, expanding and re-building our festival grounds that were severely damaged in the tornado. The new festival area will be ready for our next event, Goonfest, coming up the final weekend of June! Check out all the info here!
We are currently in the financing stage of a renovation project for our main lodge, The Wax House. With any luck, we’ll stay on track to have a new HVAC system, ceiling, walls, doors, and fixtures done by this coming winter season. This will not only improve the experience for our skiers and snowboarders, but will also make for an enhanced event space in the summer months.
On a more long term note, we have committed to expanding and streamlining our snowmaking system. With winters on the tug hill becoming less and less predictable, improved snowmaking is a must. This will include doubling our water capacity from 500 to 1000 gallons per minute as well as doubling the total number of snow guns in our arsenal. Water and electric lines will also be run to Little Mountain, in order to bring snowmaking to the beginner/intermediate area for the first time ever. We have already begun this journey with our friends at TechnoAlpin, who have created a master plan for us to begin implementing over the next few seasons.
If you’ve driven by recently, you may have noticed some new things around the Ridge. The Ridge Runner Disc Golf Course is now fully re-opened with a few new hole designs on Snowy Meadow and Little Mountain. As always, the course is free to play anytime. Jackie has also been busy expanding our little funny farm! We now have our two mini goats, Teeny and Tiny. Four ducks, Peanut, Pickle, Pepper, and Shelly. And our newest resident, Beira the Highland Cow (Beira is the Scottish Queen of Winter). These cuties will be ready for your visit during our Fall Fest events, keep an eye out for more info coming soon!
Finally, I am working with an engineer to once and for all get North Chair back online. We will work together to finalize a plan to stabilize the concrete bases of towers 5 and 6, which gave us more issues last winter due to frost heaving. Additionally, we’ll be installing a detection system on both North and Ridge Runner Chair that will tell us exactly where the issue is when a safety switch gets tripped. This will help us remedy issues faster and cut down immensely on down time. Both chairs will also have brand new comm lines, which will help eliminate a number of potential issues as well. We also hope to transition Ridge Runner completely to new galvanized chairs and begin tower painting this summer and fall.
In summary, we are staying very busy this off-season and we are very much looking forward to coming back next winter bigger, and better than ever. Until then, have a great summer and we hope to see you soon!
Nick Mir
GM
