February 01, 2012

Weather Events

Last Thursday night into Friday(1/26-27) we had a “special” weather event of an inch of freezing rain, rain,fog and temperatures that briefly flirted near the 45 degree mark Fridayafternoon before slowly falling to 28 degrees at the summit aroundmidnight.  I did say special!  I thought I would briefly explain thethought process (and hand wringing) that occurs when confronted with this typeof weather with a key ski weekend in January looming.

Very early Thursday morning with the latest mountainforecast in hand, discussions began with the Mountain Operationss staff (headedby Rick Goddard) on how to best approach the weather situation and to providethe best skiing surface possible for the weekend.  The weekend agenda included a two day USASA Southern Vermontboarder/skiercross event, a NATO telemark clinic, and one of the seasonalhighlights of the winter: the Bart Center’s Wounded Warrior weekend.  Very different groups mingling with theweekend crowd in general. 

Upon receiving the noon weather update on Thursday thefollowing decision was made: we cancelled grooming for Thursday night. We alsodecided to have all staff call in at 7:00 am Friday morning pending theconditions on the mountain to see if we could safely open the mountain without(and this is key) putting a groomer on the hill. We couldn’t. The liftmaintenance crew went to the top of the Alpine chair via snowmobiles and foundthe bullwheel ensconced in an inch of ice, and freezing rain was still falling.To open the lower mountain in this type of scenario would have requiredchipping out the chairlift and grooming the terrain.

We decided to suspend operationsfor Friday, let Mother Nature do her thing for the day, and when theappropriate time came, get on the mountain as soon as the temperatures allowed.In essence, we sacrificed whatever level of business we potentially could havedone on Friday for the greater good of the weekend. Putting a cat on the hillwhile the snow was soaking wet would have resulted in sidewalk hard skiconditions for the weekend. We left the ice in place, we stayed off the hill,and we patiently waited for the mountain to dry out before grooming began. Thecrew was able to get on the mountain around midnight and groomed right up tolift opening Saturday morning. Was it great skiing—no—but  it was the very best we could do withinthe amount of time we had to work with.

I offer up this explanationbecause over the weekend I was asked numerous times why Bromley “closed” forthe day.  We reported zero liftsand zero trails open with a Saturday reopening.  It appeared that our situation was worse than otherNortheast ski areas to the weekend skier checking condition reports on Friday.The fact is, we purposely chose to “suspend” operations for a day as that wasbest for the mountain, and ultimately, in our opinion, best for you.  Next time (and wouldn’t it be nice ifthis occasion doesn’t happen again this season) you see us closed for a dayplease don’t assume the worst….call and we will happily explain ourselves!

Bill Cairns

General Manager