The new ski season is about to get off to a promising start on Red Lodge Mountain as the slopes open this Friday.
Nearly two feet of natural snow fell on the mountain in November, which should mean some of the best opening day conditions in recent years.
Crews have been hard at work getting the slopes groomed and ready to go for the big day.
“We are going to open with some of the best conditions we have seen in recent memory, so super excited,” says Troy Hawks, marketing and sales director for Red Lodge Mountain.
“We have got about two feet of snow in the month of November and then we also have the largest snowmaking operation in the state, so we have been able to kind of supercharge our snowmaking operations here. We are really excited to welcome people back to the mountain this Friday.”
Along with plenty of fresh snow for this time of year, winter enthusiasts will be greeted with new food options and a new look. Earlier this month, Red Lodge Mountain introduced new branding.
“The first thing that people will notice is a new logo and new branding that we came out with. Overall, we think the new branding better reflects the growth we have had here at the mountain. We started out as just a ski area, we now operate a disc golf course, a retail shop, and this last year we started new summer operations,“ Hawks says.
But right now there’s plenty of excitement about what lies ahead this winter and a lot of that depends on snowfall.
“Last ski season we had about 80,000 skier visits that about 20,000 less than average. We normally average about 100,000, so visits were a little bit down—again the snow conditions were a little less than we were hoping for, so we are hoping to rebound from that this winter.
There is a currently about a 13-inch snow base.
This weekend three lifts will run from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., including the $3.7 million Stache Express, the Triple Chair and the Magic Carpet conveyor lift.
Six beginner runs will also be open including Turnpike, Showoff Alley and Miami Beach.
For more information, check out the Red Lodge Mountain web page.
