Ski hills weather storm, ready for New Year's weekend

By P.J. GLISSON

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It's a challenging time of year for ski hills, with one of them opening after another during the Christmas and New Year's Day season.

So it wasn't as though there wasn't enough to do without Mother Nature throwing a curve ball in relation to last weekend's blizzard.

Then again, maybe it's just a matter of perspective, according to Tuesday interviews with area ski hill managers.

"It's all good," said a cheery David Dziuban, owner of Whitecap Mountains Resort in Upson, Wisconsin,

He added regarding the blizzard, "That was actually the fun part of the whole deal."

Whitecap was the only area ski hill that was open during the entirety of the storm, which began churning up on Thursday and did not calm down until Sunday, by which time close to 30 inches of new snow had fallen.

"We had guests here, and they wanted to ski," said Dziuban of the resort that also includes a hotel, along with other lodging and housing.

Staff members also were available, so he said they figured they might as well open the runs. Meanwhile, according to social media, a Santa sighting even was reported above neighboring Weber Lake on Christmas Eve.

Snowriver Mountain Resort also was open on Christmas Day, but not on Christmas Eve.

It originally intended to welcome skiers to Jackson Creek Summit in Wakefield Township and Black River Basin in Bessemer Township on both days, but then issued the following announcement on Facebook on Dec. 24:

"Winds and snowfall have increased steadily throughout the day today and are now reaching true blizzard-like conditions. The overnight forecast is calling for increasing winds and heavy, heavy snowfall. Road conditions are expected to deteriorate overnight and be very poor for our employee's commutes tomorrow morning. For their safety and the safety of those guests traveling to ski with us tomorrow, we have made the difficult decision to close our ski area for tomorrow, 12/24/2022."

As for the Sunday opening, Snowriver General Manager Benjamin Bartz explained that staff worked throughout the previous night to make it possible, but added that it was still "a challenge."

Regarding the blizzard, he said of his employees, "A lot of the guys who've been here for 30 years said they'd never seen a storm like this before."

As of Tuesday, however, he was highly optimistic about the season. "As of today, we've got 100% of our terrain open with lifts servicing all of it," he told The Globe, adding that Jackson Creek has been open every day since Dec. 16 except for last Saturday's closing.

Big Powderhorn Mountain Resort in Bessemer had announced it would open on Christmas Day but then updated with an adjustment to Monday instead.

On Dec. 24, the resort announced on Facebook, "Gogebic County has pulled all snowplows off the roads as of 2 p.m. today and they will not go back out until 3 a.m. With tow trucks unavailable, ambulances getting stuck, etc., we are making the decision not to open the ski hill tomorrow on Christmas Day. We do not want to risk your safety or the safety of our employees having them come in tonight and tomorrow morning to prepare to open."

The resort did reopen on Monday after having had only one previous day open on Dec. 22.

By Tuesday, Powderhorn General Manager Bruce Noren reported being "very busy, extremely busy."

He noted that the weekend closure was necessary in order for staff to "evaluate all our lifts and terrain" and "have confidence that everything was safe."

But as of Tuesday, he said, happily, "We probably have 85% of our hill open" and expected that more will open every day.

He explained that one issue slowing down the process is that "as soon as you get this in-rush of people, they tend to go even on the closed runs, so we can only do our work at night."

Overall, he said, "We're all still digging out. We had 8- and 10-foot tall drifts in some places. The piles of snow are called whales because that's what they look like, and we're still pushing some whales."

The Mt. Zion Ski Area in Ironwood, based at Gogebic Community College, also closed on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, but reopened on Monday.

Jim VanderSpoel of Mt. Zion told The Globe last week the hill has a number of projects planned for the season, including the King of the Mountain Ski Race, Team Z ski races beginning on the first Saturday in January, Friday Night Fights beginning in January, the return of the Ironwood Area School's elementary ski programs (beginning the week of Jan. 16) and the return of the Tiny Tots lessons that same week.

"We are back to post-COVID full operation, back to where we should be," said VanderSpoel.

In Ontonagon, the Porcupine Mountains Winter Sports Complex expects to open on Friday. The resort distinguishes itself by not making snow and offering only a totally natural experience. That site is open from Fridays through Mondays throughout the skiing season.

New Year's weekend is looking good, according to Dziuban at Whitecap.

"We've received over 100 inches already this season," he said, adding that groomers have been busy and that hills are "in really good shape - lots of powder."

At Snowriver, Bartz said that all the man-made snow is now covered with natural powder, and he expects today and Friday to be "great days for skiing" with warmer temperatures predicted.

Noren, at Powderhorn, also was looking forward to warmer weather, but added, for the sake of maintaining the integrity of the hills, "I hope not too mild."