Operations, Snowmaking
It's Sh(n)owtime!
Oct 30, 2023
Snowmaking Time
I love the Addams Family. It's one of my favorite Halloween movies of all time, both the old ones and the new animated ones. I've even started watching 'Wednesday' with my son Ronan. Halloween is certainly a fun time of year, not only for the kids but also for adults! For those of us in the ski industry, it typically marks the 'official' end of fall, and winter is on.
That being said, we gave out some treats to the slopes on Halloween night with the first flakes of the season from our snowmaking guns. The snow fell on top of what Mother Nature provided earlier that day, and all systems worked as planned with no incidents. A+ to summer maintenance!"
When to Say Go.
You've probably noticed a few other resorts firing up at various times over the last few days. How do we decide when to start snowmaking? It comes down to temperatures, humidity, and timing. Last week, we received a substantial amount of rain, with over four inches falling in a 36-hour period, followed by cold winds.
We refrained from starting the snowmaking process right away because we still had rivers flowing down the mountain, and the humidity levels remained rather high due to all the moisture, even with the dropping temperatures.
Tuesday was the coldest night of the week, and we were focused on getting our top, seasoned veterans out there first, and we welcomed new snowmakers today for training.
Timing of snowmaking is right in line with previous seasons and we are still working towards the November 22, 2023 for opening. But Mother Nature needs to be a good partner.
Social media has all the photos so check it out.
New Program Alert
We're excited to kick off a new program that will be available for purchase by the time we open. It's called the Granite Peak Parks Progression Program. GP4 for short.
This program is taking over for the Freestyle Team that was a part of the Granite Peak Ski Team. We love our ski team volunteers and coaches but we all agreed that their primary focus and history has been heralded by a devotion to ski racing. We wanted to be sure this program lives on for those athletes looking to succeed in growing their skills in the parks - hence the name.
This program is still getting loaded into our system and registration links should be live before we spin the lifts.
Season Passes & Ski Swaps
Season Passes are going out the door every single day and over this weekend we will have quite the production to get many out the door. Once they hit the USPS it seems they are taking 2-3 days to arrive to people's door within the immediate area! Within your envelope you'll find details on benefits, a few stickers and your pass(es).
RIB MOUNTAIN SKI CLUB SALE
If you are still looking for ski gear or want to sell off some gear to support local charities check out the Rib Mountain Ski Club sale at John Muir on Saturday, November 4th.
Granite Peak is supporting with some of last year's demo skis and I'll actually have some gear down there for sale after receiving some new planks from Rossignol this week!
Now I just need my knee to get back into ski shape!
Thanks for reading and we'll see you soon.
Greg