Turner Mountain plans to open this weekend
Pat Grotjohn, left, waits for Bill Frazey, above in window, to move the chairlift forward to bring the next chair down to be replaced on Tuesday afternoon while preparing for Turner Mountain Ski Area’s opening day. The crew was in the final stages of maintenance.
It’s time to grab the skis and make a
few runs.
Thanks to significant early-winter
snowfall, it looks like the Turner Mountain Ski Area will open to
the public this weekend.
“We’re tentatively going to open on
Saturday. That could change but we don’t anticipate it at this
point,” said Bruce Zwang of the ski area’s board of directors.
Turner Mountain officials hope to see
more skier days this winter. Last season, the ski area didn’t open
until Jan. 2 and then stayed open for only 29 operating days.
“We tend to budget for about 54 so our
number of operating days were down significantly,” Zwang said. “If
we lose the holiday week, that’s a big hit for us. We’re open every
day while the kids are out of school except Christmas Day, of
course. If we lose that, it’s a real bummer.”
Two years ago, the ski area didn’t open
until Dec. 29 so it’s been a while since Turner has benefitted from
those holiday numbers.
“Historically, this isn’t super early
for us but we haven’t been open for the holidays in recent years so
this is really exciting for us,” Zwang said.
Skiers may notice a few changes while
going on a run down Turner.
“We’ve added some gladed areas … where
we move the brush and small trees and leave everything else,” Zwang
said. “We’ve opened up several areas like that and I think it will
be really popular.”
At last word, Turner had 30-plus inches
on top and 22 inches on the bottom “with more snow coming this
week,” Zwang said.
Turner Mountain held its annual
fundraising fun night this past weekend. Zwang said a sizeable
crowd showed up.
“I think this early snow gets folks in
the mood,” he said.
Turner operates with more than 30
volunteers who contribute a wide range of hours to keep the
mountain running.
Turner Mountain expects to be open Dec.
11-12, Dec. 17-19 and Dec. 23-24. After closing for Christmas Day,
the ski area will then be open from Dec. 26-Jan. 2.
After those dates, Turner will operate
on its regular schedule – Friday through Sunday each week as long
as conditions hold out.