Labor Day has passed and if you’re anything like us then we’re sure you’ve began thinking about the upcoming winter season. We’ve officially launched our Season Passes for the Winter 2018/2019 season and while our guests were splashing at the Waterpark, biking at the Bike Park and enjoying our summer here at the mountain our Mountain Trails team has been hard at work all summer prepping the mountain to be ready for when the first snow begins to fall.
It’s certainly been a busy summer for our Trails team, after a few seasons of off-season neglect there was no shortage of work to keep them occupied, but we won’t stop until we know we have done everything we can to help ensure that you, our guests, have the best winter experiences possible. To that end… we’ve committed more than $700,000 in mountain improvements this off-season, and we’re very excited to bring you up to speed on several new projects we’ve been working on.
First on the list, the Mountain Team has been maintaining and repairing trails, so they’ll be ready to go and better than ever this season. This includes a variety of tasks such as; regrading dirt surfaces in critical areas to make snowmaking easier and to help them hold snow better, clearing of deadfall and brush to widen the skiable areas and improve the snow surface, repairing water bars to direct water properly and minimize the effects of erosion on the mountain and snowpack as it begins to melt in the spring.
Granite Improvements
In addition to these more routine maintenance projects we have completed a major project to widen and repair the S turns on Granite Peak. This much-needed work on Granite will not only widened the trail, but most importantly, will allow the trails to hold snow better. This will allow us to get Charlie’s Run open earlier and keep it open longer than we have in the past. And if you love Granite Peak as much as us, you know this will greatly improve your on-hill experience and keep us making turns well into the spring across all four mountain peaks.
New Snowmaking Firepower
Now, let’s talk about our favorite fluffy white stuff… SNOW. We’ve invested more than $500,000 in capital improvements to enhance our snowmaking. This includes repairs and infrastructure improvements as well as the purchase of new high efficiency snow guns to help blanket the mountain this winter. This fall we’ll be installing a mix of nearly 60 new SMI Fan guns, HKD High Efficiency Stick Guns and SGT Sledgehammer™ super efficiency snow guns on the Horizon and Sugar Slope trails. This mixed arsenal will ensure we can lay down the best snow no matter what the weather conditions bring. By increasing our firepower in these critical areas we can get these backbone trails open earlier, while allowing us to move the existing guns and air and water resources to other areas of the mountain. The end result will be an increased ability to make snow across the entire mountain, all while lowering our environmental footprint. Talk about a win-win!
Less Waiting. More Skiing.
Last, but certainly not least... We’re investing considerably into the onsite arrival experience for our guests this winter. In addition to the adoption of our new SnowCloud™ ticketing system, both Ticket Check-in and the Rental Experience will be getting a major face lift for this winter. We’re not quite ready to share all of the details just yet but we have some really exciting changes up our sleeves which will greatly reduce your time spent wasted waiting in line and get you out on the slopes quicker and easier than ever before.
It’s going to be a great winter here at Mountain Creek. We hope you’ll be a part of it with us. Take advantage of our fall Season Pass and Triple Play sale going on now to lock in your best deal on an entire winter filled with fun. We’ll see you when the snow flies.