Current Snowmaking

This photo is from 8pm Thursday evening. Beartrack will be open Saturday.

Notice the cool visual effect of the light shining through the trees onto the airborne snow. It's like looking at a movie projected onto a white screen from the back side. It was dramatically beautiful in person...all shimmery and quivering.

Not only is there snow to make, there is snow to move...

Huge mounds of snow must be spread across the hills with the groomer.

Exit ramps from the chairlifts need to be shaped.

Approaches to rails and terrain features need to be raked into place.

And the entire Tubing Park needs to be sculpted into lanes and berms.

The weather looks great for the weekend... cu@bv

Photos by JEN LAITALA

A few photos from December 6...

PHOTOS by Jen Laitala

The general population of Buena Vista begins to swagger just a bit when Jen stops by.

She treks up the hills on snowshoes...kids pull off just a bit more speed and air...adults put a little more swish into their turns...everyone is hoping she is pointing her lense at them.

Because her photography skills can match what the local talent dishes out.

And it's fun to smile for a good camera!

Opening Day

One couldn't have asked for a nicer opening day.

Blue skies. Decent temps. Little breeze. Happy people.

Photos by M. Thomas

Lazy snowboards basking in the sun.

Rental Shop

Kirby worked...and worked...and worked, as did his trusty crew of technicians, to be ready for this opening day. Considering what had to get finished, it's amazing how neat and tidy everything looked this morning. All ready for our guests!

I'm continually enchanted by the rows and rows of pretty skis all standing at attention. Wish I was a better photographer and could capture the candy colors better. Oh!....that's why I like them so much...they remind me of a big new box of 64 color crayons!

J & M adjust a ski at one of the new "counters" that replaced the big old ramp. Congratulations to the Rental Staff...no more sore backs from bending over people's feet all day! Won't that be NICE? :-)

Preparation for the Big Day

John Dickinson took this photo from the Continental Lift Ramp: looking down towards the chalet and the snowguns on Julia. Julia is open now and the guns have been moved to other runs.

Snowmaking Continues

I took some photos today from the bottom of the hill. And I caught John at checking one of the snowguns. The temps and humidity have been just perfect for making snow. Snowmaking will continue on other runs during our public hours.

Julia will be open this Saturday & Sunday. The bunny hill will probably be open as well.

$10 Lift $15 Ski Rental $18 Board Rental

OPEN Dec 5 & 6

Buena Vista will be open this weekend.

Saturday & Sunday

December 5 & 6

10am - 5pm

The Chalet is all lit up because the Rental Department staff had their first training session this evening. Everyone is excited to learn about the new Elan skis and bindings. Kirby and Mike have designed and built new stations for distributing rentals. New charts, new storage, new everything. Time to put it all into practice.

If you look carefully...click on any image to see a larger version...you can see three guns going on this view of Julia.

The main goal was to get the Julia Vista run open by Saturday. This photo suggests Sunflake (Bunny) may also be open. I'll update tomorrow from the office.

Sigh of Relief

After weeks of waiting, days of studying the hourly forecasts, and several attempts which created only puddles; the weather finally graces us with favorable conditions for snow making. John and his crew were just turning on the guns yesterday when I left work.

Then later, returning from Bemidji after dark, I swung into BV to snap these photos. The best view of all was rounding the curve on Co.Rd 15 by the Dickinson Ranch. From that angle the entire hill was visible and draped in clouds of snow. I didn't want to pull over on the side of the road, though. These are photos taken from the parking lot.
The drone of the guns was a constant, gentle roar...and the plumes of snow drifted away like smoke. It was all so mesmerizing and beautiful in the black and white of night.

John and the crew stopped by on their ATV's to say "Hi." What an enormous amount of effort they put in to get this base made: working 'round the clock, repositioning the equipment as the wind changes, dragging hoses, getting soaked with water and half frozen, juggling moisture and electricity... And yet, this endeavor is exactly what they have been impatiently waiting to begin.

The forecast looks good. The frustration of waiting seems to be over. It's a beautiful, snowy relief.

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Thanks! ~ Sabrina Wille Erickson

Patience

Julia Vista

It's true. We got a lovely inch and a half of PERFECT snow yesterday.

Unfortunately, the humidity was, again, too high last night to make snow. But the crew is poised to turn on the guns the moment the temperature and humidity are balanced enough to create snow and not rain.

It is doubtful we will be open for this weekend. Not such exciting news...but since there is nothing that can be done about the weather, improvements to the Rental Shop and machinery maintenance are getting accomplished. We do plan to be open December 12 & 13.

Continental

I will be updating the blog and Twitter often over the next weeks. Hopefully now that the hills are white, winter will decide to stay for a while.