TRAVERSE CITY — With all that snow and cold we’ve seen the long-awaited ski season is right around the corner.
Ski hills across Northern Michigan are preparing for another season, with many planning to open this weekend. However, one local ski hill says the inconsistent weather continues to create challenges.
Jim Pearson is the Executive Director of Mount Holiday in Traverse City, he says they’ve been making snow all week, but with warmer weather right around the corner he said they won’t be able to open for another couple of weeks.
“Most of the [snow] will last, the natural snow will probably melt because the temperature gets back up to the 40′s. Then we’ll just have to keep blowing snow as we can,” Pearson explained.
He said the region’s snowfall just hasn’t been the same over the past decade but says they haven’t had a real drop in sales or participation in recent years.
“I think we did over 10,000 people tubing [last year], 7500 skiers. And that’s just tickets that’s not season pass holders,” Pearson reported. “So, it moves our season back a little bit, but I think we had about the same amount of skiable days as we have had in the recent past.”
And despite other ski hills planning to open this weekend, Mount Holiday says they’re shooting to open just in time for the holiday break around Dec. 20.
“Our strategy this year is to be more aggressive. Anytime we have temperatures where we can blow snow, we’re going to blow snow,” Pearson said.
