Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
TWO SKIERS ride a lift to use a single, open run on New Year's Day as they are silhouetted amidst a cloud of flakes from snow-making machines that were working hard to add needed layers of white stuff to remaining hills at Big Powderhorn Mountain Resort in Bessemer Township.
By P.J. GLISSON
Typically, at this time of year, local ski hills are basking in the aftermath of bustling holiday seasons that draw thousands of tourists from near and far.
Not so this year, with some resorts still closed and others open only with limited hills available.
"We are not officially open yet," said David Dziuban, owner and manager of Whitecap Mountains Resort in Upson, Wisconsin, on New Year's Day.
"We started making snow on Oct 30 and utilized every opportunity as the weather permitted, but due to the extreme warmth and persistent rains last week, we lost a lot of snow," said Dziuban, adding that snowmaking began again on Sunday.
"It does appear that we have a long stretch of favorable weather headed our way," he said. "We are looking to opening most likely in the next week."
In Bessemer Township, snowmaking was in full force on Monday at Big Powderhorn Mountain Resort, with waves of snow flying across the hills as a small number of skiers used one open slope.
General Manager Bruce Noren told The Globe on New Year's Day that his resort had created a lot of snow in order to open two runs in the middle of December.
"We went from two runs to one run," he said, only to have to close again with a couple days due to the "extended warm season."
A few days before Christmas, the resort reopened one slope after making more snow and hauling it to where it was needed.
It amounts to "a lot of work" being repeated, said Noren, explaining that the already "very high" expense of producing the snow has, in effect, doubled while expected profits from all of the recent holidays also have been lost.
On New Year's Eve, Benjamin Bartz - general manager of Snowriver Mountain Resort - described similar challenges at its dual locations of Jackson Creek Summit in Wakefield Township and Black River Basin in Bessemer Township.
As of the start of the week, he said that two and four trails were open, respectively, at Jackson Creek and Black River Basin, with 10 more runs expected to open by this weekend.
"We've been busy," said Bartz, referring in part to the resort's list of recent holiday activities.
Meanwhile, Mt. Zion Ski Hill, on the campus of Gogebic Community College in Ironwood, announced on Dec. 20 that it would not be able to open, as planned, on Dec. 21.
"This is not the news we wanted to share," said Mt. Zion via Facebook, "but with Mother Nature not wanting to cooperate, it's just the reality of the situation. At this point in time we do not have a set in stone date for open, but we will be posting the new opening date soon."
The Porcupine Mountains Wilderness Ski Complex, next to Lake Superior, also remains closed in Ontonagon. On Saturday, it posted a photo taken that day of a bare slope. "Mother Nature, please start shaking the snow globe," said the site's Facebook post.
Earlier, on Dec. 19, the Porkies Ski Area also posted links to the original "Heikki Lunta Snow Dance" song by David Riutta, along with the "Da Yooper" version about the Finnish snow god.
A total of 1.2 inches of snow fell over the holiday weekend. Another 0.5 inches of snow fell overnight Tuesday into Wednesday morning, bringing the season total to 16.0 inches - not enough to make it possible to ski on slopes that rely only on natural snow.
Under the circumstances, Noren said "all went well" at Powderhorn over the holidays, despite many folks postponing trips to this region.
"We never heard one negative comment from our guests," he said, adding that people who did travel here made the best of it.
He recalled speaking with a group of more than 40 people who said that being limited to one slope had the upside of them never being split up across the various runs.
While they were inside the chalet decorated for the holiday season, the same group enjoyed board games near the warmth of fireplaces.
Noren said local resorts also were hurt by the fact that Christmas and New Year's fell on Monday, which means that guests did not extend their stay into the week.
He added that there is a bright side to the even slower post-holiday traffic. "Now we can make snow more aggressively. It's hard to make snow when we have so many people here."
In relation to this year's weather pattern, Noren said that it has been even harder on the snowmobiling industry since those volunteers cannot make snow for the trails.
"There's nothing they can do," he said, adding, moreover, that the loss of traffic during the holidays is gone for good. "That's prime time. You can't make it up."
Still, he's optimistic about Lake Superior. "That lake's got to be wide open and warm," he said, adding that it could result in much desired lake-effect snow. "It can only get better."
