ELLICOTTVILLE — Holiday Valley Resort and HoliMont are islands of snow in an otherwise green landscape after recent warm, rainy weather.
Skiers and snowboarders darted down ski slopes through the weekend and were skiing again on Monday, according to Holiday Valley marketing director Jane Eshbaugh.
Holiday Valley held The Cleveland Race for 100 skiers on Saturday and Sunday, Eshbaugh said.
“How do we keep the snow?” Eshbaugh asked. “We made a ton of it in mid-November and again in mid-December. We made snow again last Wednesday when the temperatures dipped into the single digits.” Snow is often stockpiled so it can be moved to areas where it is needed.
Eshbaugh said Holiday Valley mountain crews have made more snow at this time of the season than in previous years. Monday marked the 42nd skiing day this season.
Unfortunately, when there’s no snow on the ground where you live, it’s often hard to make the connection that snow is only several hundred automated snowguns away.
Over the weekend, all lifts except Spruce Lake were open. The Tannenbaum lift closed on Sunday due to an off-site power issue, Eshbaugh said.
The resort is reporting a base varying from 10 to 49 inches.
Holiday Valley has begun measuring snow depth with an app called SnowSat, Eshbagh said. Areas that appear red in satellite images of the slope need more snow, which is picked up by snow groomers and those operating the snowguns. More snow can be moved to areas where there is a thin base and snowguns can be focused on these areas as well.
With another period of cold weather around the corner, Eshbaugh said Holiday Valley will be cranking out as much snow as possible.
What would also help is a good helping of snow across Western New York to get everyones’ skiing and snowboarding juices flowing, Eshbaugh noted.
