BC-Mark

11/21/08 Update: Our low last night was 28F with 85% humidity. Needless to say, with the warm water, it was not a great scenario for snowmaking. We will not be able to open on Saturday, but we are still hoping for Sunday. I will post tomorrow to update on the possibility of Sunday. The rail jam is still on for tonight, so come out and take advantage of the snow we have made!

11/20/08 Evening Update We are sitting at 32F right now. Unfortunately, the trend shows rising temps and humidity. The snowmaking team is coming in around 10PM to see if the trend reverses but the hourly forecast doesn't look too great. Hopefully we can get some production between midnight and 8AM. Let's hope the forecast holds for Friday and Saturday night. 20F would be great!

11/20/08 Update: I wish I had definitive news, but we did not get the production we had hoped for last night. The predicted low of 23F never materialized and Brad and his team were left to battle it out with constantly fluctuating temperatures that were marginal at best. As of today, we are unable to predict whether we will have enough snow to open Saturday. Tonight, Friday and Saturday nights all look very promising. We will have a definite answer regarding Saturday by tomorrow morning. If we are unable to open Saturday, we try to open Sunday if conditions permit. Think Cold!

We hope to fire up around 8pm tonight. For those of you watching the webcams, don't get used to the lights, the WFMZ news crew is here shooting some footage, as soon as they are done, we are going dark again. Next update will be tomorrow morning. Let's hope I am able to confirm an opening!

11/19/08 Update: We had a good night of snowmaking last night. Our temperatures fluctuated between 26F and 29F during the night and the team and system worked great. The water is still 46F so that is hurting us a bit but it should get better each night. Good production tonight will be critical for a Saturday opening. We hope to start around 6pm this evening and go as long as we can in the morning. We do have to shut down earlier than normal due to the warm water. Once the sun starts peaking out we shut down to avoid making a huge wet mess. I will update again tomorrow and hopefully will be able to share some great news!

No lights this year, we are trying to conserve energy as much as possible. You may see every third light on during startup, but other than that, it will be stealth snowmaking.

They just started the pumps, so I would guess in the next hour or so as soon as the temperatures drop a few degrees. The wind is kicking up a bit so we shouldn't have any issues with temperature inversions tonight but it does make it a bit more difficult to keep the snow on the trails.

Here is the latest snowmaking update: We will be making snow on Cascade (including the tubing jump line), Black Bear, Kodiak and Cub Run for the next few nights. We are using every tower gun on those trails and all our wheeled guns. Our hope is to have a great set-up for the rail jam on Friday night and some lift serviced terrain for the weekend. The ground has firmed up nicely and the forecast is for light winds and cold temps. The only wildcard is water temperature. It is still hovering in the high 40's so the impact of that remains to be seen. I will post another update tomorrow after we get a feel for what kind of production we get tonight.

If you lose your pass during a run we have the ability to check your pass records for that day and verify you have been scanned on previous runs that day. You then have two options: 1) Wait to see if your pass shows up and use your forgotten pass ticket for the remainder of your visit 2) Pay for the replacement fee and get a new pass Based on the number of passes that get turned into Guest Services, I would say there is a decent chance the pass shows up by the end of the night. If it gets lost on a trail and it goes longer than a day, chances are it has been tilled under by the groomers and won't be in any usable shape if it is found. If your pass breaks, be sure to keep the pieces and bring them to Guest Services and they will replace the pass for free.

To fully answer the questions: 1) There is not a discount available for off-peak pass holders during peak times. 2) Forgotten pass tickets are issued once a season. They are only issued during times when your pass is valid. Within the pass system, we deactivate your pass for the day and, if you or a friend are found attempting to load the lift with your pass on the day the forgotten pass was issued, you will lose your pass for the remainder of the season. 3) If you decide to upgrade to an unlimited pass during the season we are happy to do so. The upgrade fee is the difference between the cost of the off-peak pass and the unlimited pass based on the pricing at the time of your original purchase. 4) I would strongly encourage anyone thinking they will be able to ski or ride for free this year to reconsider. We will be scanning at all times on all lifts. We have done away with $150 fine option and will be prosecuting every person attempting to load the lift without a valid ticket or pass. The resulting conviction is a class 2 misdemeanor and carries a fine that is approximately equal to the cost of a full priced unlimited pass. I realize some of these policies sound harsh but we have seen a lot of abuse over the past several years. It is not fair to have the experience of our paying guests paying diminished by non-paying guests. We will be doing everything we can to make sure our paying guests get the best value for their hard earned money.

To answer the questions definitively: 1) A downloaded, filled out and signed season pass agreement/liability release is fine, there is no need for your parent or guardian to be present 2) If you buy a pass then get a job at Bear Creek we do refund the purchase price of your pass at the end of the season as long as you remain an employee in good standing. If you are terminated or quit, your employee pass is revoked and you are free to use the season pass you purchased. If you never pick up the season pass you purchase, you can receive a full refund or roll the pass to the following year. A side note on passes. I know a lot of people get their passes from friends that work at Bear Creek. We are changing the employee benefits this year to make them more flexible but in doing so, we are eliminating the significant other/dependant passes for the majority of part time seasonal workers. This year, non-managers and supervisors in most departments (snowsports school and ski patrol being the exceptions) will receive 2 credits per week that can be redeemed for off-peak lift tickets. This way, employees can share their benefits with multiple people. So, if you are planning on getting a pass and waiting for a friend to get a job here and receive their significant other pass, I would recommend purchasing a pass at the early bird rate. If you really want a great deal on a pass, get 10 people together and get in touch with Jake at jakeh@bcmountainresort.com and buy your passes as a group. The group organizer gets their pass for free, you can't get any cheaper than that!

It's that time again and, as usual, we have had a busy off-season. This year the major upgrades are the replacement of A-Lift with a new fixed grip quad that will double our uphill capacity, the addition of 16 more snowguns all of which are automated further increasing snowmaking production, doubling the size of the lower pond that adds more stored water to our snowmaking supply and the replacement of the ski patrol building. In addition, we did fill the in-ground halfpipe. We did this for a couple reasons. First, it takes so long to open that the area is essentially wasted space for 1/2 the season. This way, it can be opened as more park space early in the season. Second, it only takes 10% more snow to build an above ground, all snow pipe. If we see the opportunity to make a huge pile in the forecast, we will take it and put in a snow pipe which will yield better results in the long run. If the opportunity does not arise, we still have great park area to use. Finally, we have upgraded our scanner technology at all lifts. We will be scanning all passes, everyday, all day. This will ensure that paying guests are getting the most for their investment and keep non paying guests from filling seats on chairs and space on the slopes.

The cable-tow wakeboard park is on hold for now. We may revisit it sometime in the future. With Skirmish right up the road, it was tough to compete in the paintball market and now it just doesn't fit in with our other activities. We are starting to have concerts on Thursday nights in July so keep an eye out for the schedule.

The idea to be open only weekdays stems from the fact that there will be other mountains open offering a park with lift service and reduced ticket prices on weekends making it difficult to draw an appreciable crowd. Most of the schools in our area get out between 2:30pm and 3:00pm and the majority of our guests live within an hour. We are indeed trying to keep cost to a minimum so we want to run during times that don't require lights. Weddings and other functions do not have a bearing on our ski activities. We have two ballrooms that we hold events in all winter. We do not allow the lodge to be booked after the first weekend in November or prior to the first full weekend in April. To answer an earlier question about food service, we will have the Grille and Trails End Cafe open for food.

We are going to close on Saturday, March 22nd at 4pm. Visits have been declining rapidly and after we receive 1" to 2" of rain over the next 36 hours, what interest remains will be pretty well killed off. After we have a day to regroup and push some snow around on Sunday, we will reopen on Monday with a hikeable park on lower Kodiak. It will most likely run from just below the Sasquatch intersection down to the base area. We haven't set a price yet for a ticket, but pass holders will be allowed to ride at no cost. We will operate from 4pm to 7pm Monday through Friday. We will be closed weekends. At this point, we will run the park for at least a week, if attendance is good, we will keep going as long as conditions and attendance allow.

Latest update: We have started the conversion of Timberline to a park but it is going slowly. Tubing conversion is not happening until the night of the 15th, I didn't realize we had a tubing group scheduled for the morning of the 15th. We did make snow on Sunday night but Monday night was too warm unfortunately. It looks like we have a chance to make snow Wednesday night, keep your fingers crossed. We were able to get a 200' x 300' liner for pond skimming this year so the pond should be huge! We are thinking 90' to 100' long and 40' wide. We hope to have a normal entrance to the pond and a rail of some sort as another entrance. Start getting your costumes together!

Ok, I guess we should have put a sign up to clear up the mystery about the piles of snow in the woods off the bottom or Timberline. The water does indeed come from our waste water. We installed a treatment plant this year and fully treat our waste water and store the treated effluent in the the new lagoon at the bottom of F lift. The water in the lagoon is technically clean enough to drink by the time it has been through the complete treatment process. Unfortunately, we were unable to convince DEP to allow us to use the treated effluent to make snow, so we spray the water into the woods through snowguns in the winter and sprinkler heads in the summer, where is it reabsorbed into the ground water. The amount of treated effluent we generate in a typical winter would only result in approximately 5 acre feet of additional snow, but it would have been a lot more energy efficient than running a dedicated pump house and 6 additional guns just to dispose of the water.

I am not sure about the stats for Doe, but as Bear Creek our longest season was 103 days. I think we should have no problems making that this year. The biggest problem in the mid-atlantic is the mentality of the skiers and riders. Most people hang up the skis and boards as soon as we get one warm day in March, when, in actuality, we typically still have great conditions. The reason we continue to pound the mountain each night is to offer the best possible snow conditions for the people that continue to come out. Every year I hope we can break through to the masses and show them that we still have great conditions in March. This year, we are nearly giving away the Midweek Ski and Stay packages in March to try to and draw people in and show them that the skiing and riding in March can be great! Also, as we all know, the majority of guests coming in March come for the parks. Starting March 10th we will turn Timberline and the entire tubing park into terrain park, snow permitting. The best way to assure that we stay open longer is to spread the news to your friends, family, even enemies that the conditions can be great in March. Andy is already formulating ideas for the new terrain we are turning over to him and the park crew and I expect to see some pretty creative features.

Thanks for the great review. This morning was a late arriving crowd for some unknown reason. The people who got here early were rewarded with the best conditions in recent memory. Glad you and Bob were among the lucky ones out enjoying it!

I was talking with Andy this morning and he was able to get some new features on Black Bear and Cascade last night. With the super cold temperatures allowing us to make huge volumes of snow, his thought is to have fewer features and try to keep them ridable during the next few days of snowmaking. Sometime Thursday/Friday he will begin putting features back out and rebuilding the parks. Starting tomororw, the halfpipe will be closed for blowing until later in the week. Andy really wants to put some of the new pipe cutting concepts he learned at Cutter's Camp this year to work. We should have plenty of snow in there to get it open in the next 5 to 7 days.

We will be running a special Saturday NASTAR on Timberline today, 1/19/08, from noon to 2PM. Today's pacesetter will be former US Ski Team Member/Olympian and current NASTAR National Pacesetter, AJ Kitt! AJ will be running the course during the event and providing pointers at the start.

Given the huge amount of snow required to build a quality pipe and the difficult snowmaking conditions we have seen in recent years, should we continue to keep the terrain as a halfpipe or fill it in and create more park space?

We were able to get started around 11:30 last night. The temperatures just weren't dropping and the humidity remained relatively high all night. We did get some decent production from 4am to 7:30am with a wet bulb around 22. Tonight looks questionable with the ice/rain coming in but tomorrow night looks cold and we see good temps in the forecast through Wednesday night.

We will begin making snow around 6PM tonight to get a jump start on this round of snowmaking. Temperatures don't look too favorable for around the clock production until Monday or Tuesday next week, but night time temperatures look good through mid to late next week. By Monday/Tuesday we should have plenty of snow to start building bigger features in the parks and begin NASTAR on the 19th.

Based on GPS measurements taken when we replaced B chair and F chair, the vertical for B is 458' and the vertical for F is 430'. Resorts measure vertical from the highest skiable point to the lowest skiable point that can be travelled in a single run without aid of a lift. The elevation of the top terminal on B Chair is +/- 1100' and the elevation of the bottom terminal on F Chair is +/- 590' giving us a skiable vertical rise of 510'. I hope that clears things up.