The Star Beacon; Ashtabula, Ohio

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Ohio ski resorts celebrating this week’s heavy snow

After a bleak winter for Ohio ski resorts last year, this week’s heavy snowfall is being celebrated as many slopes open for the first time this season.
“Mother Nature finally woke up and came in with a big punch,” Greg Fisher, general manager of Mad River Mountain ski resort, told The Columbus Dispatch for a story Friday. “It’s not very often that Ohio gets nearly a foot of snow all at once.”
Mad River Mountain, in western Ohio just outside Bellefontaine, got about 10 inches of snow Wednesday. That was enough to allow the resort to open all but one of its 24 trails the next day. Its 1,000-foot-long snow-tubing hill is opening Friday.
Last year, the resort had just five trails open after Christmas. On its opening day this year, last Saturday, only a few trails were available.
Warm weather and a lack of snowfall combined to keep the three ski resorts in northern Ohio from opening until now. Slopes at Boston Mills resort, midway between Cleveland and Akron, were scheduled to open Friday. Nearby Brandywine is slated to open Saturday, and operators at Alpine Valley in Chesterland, east of Cleveland, also hope to open this weekend.
More snow is predicted for much of Ohio on Saturday.
Vinnie Lewis, general manager of Boston Mills and Brandywine, said more trails will be opened this weekend if temperatures stay low enough — as expected — for more artificial snow-making.
“We’ll be making snow 24/7 if we can,” Lewis said. “I can see us opening the other trails quickly because the great thing is, the forecast for snow and snow-making is nice.”
Annie Weirich, director of event coordinating at Clear Fork Resort near Mansfield, said slopes were able to be opened Monday — thanks to 30 snow-making guns and eight mobile snow-makers that have been added this year.
The resort shut down several years ago but reopened under new management last year. But the winter was so warm that slopes were open only one full week plus weekends.
“We’re very appreciative of Mother Nature this year, even though she kind of got a late start,” Weirich said.
When it comes to snow, skiers — and resort operators — know that nothing beats the real thing.
“When it snows, that’s the best advertising of all for us,” Weirich said. “People think that if they don’t have snow, we don’t have snow, either.”
Snow Trails, the other ski resort near Mansfield, opened earlier this month. Nine of its 17 trails and one terrain park are open, and the tubing hill is set to open on Saturday.

Related Photos

  • WARREN DILLAWAY / Star Beacon VANESSA WELKER, 9, of Conneaut walks back up the Conneaut Township Park bluffs hill Friday afternoon.

    wd saturday sled 2 .jpg

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December 29, 2012

Wednesday’s storm provides entertainment for those who appreciate the white stuff

By WARREN DILLAWAY - warren@starbeacon.com Star Beacon

CONNEAUT — The recent blast of snow provided visitors from Las Vegas a special Christmas gift.

Joe Barnes was returning to his childhood home with his wife of six months, Emily, and had played up the “White Christmas” theme.

It almost didn’t come to pass for Emily Barnes who grew up in southern Nevada and had only experienced recreational snow fun on two trips to the mountains when she was a child.

“It was nothing like this,” she said after braving the Conneaut Township Park bluffs “double hill” on a wicked ride to the bottom Friday afternoon.

She said Thursday was her first real sledding experience, but it was a bit cold. The moderate temperatures made Friday’s fun a little bit more enjoyable, Emily Barnes said.

“This is my first time sled riding in eight years,” said her husband Joe Barnes. He said most of his winter trips back to Conneaut have been made with little snow.

“That post Christmas storm really did it for us,” he said.

The experience was not without risk. “Yesterday (Thursday) I went face first; hence the cut on my nose,” he said with a laugh.

Rebecca Welker and her daughter Vanessa, 9, both of Conneaut, were checking out the Conneaut Township Park hill for the first time Friday.

Welker said she has fond memories of sled riding with her friends as a child in Brookfield. Vanessa Welker was having just as much fun rolling down a portion of the hill without her inflatable inner tube.

A group of Conneaut teens were working hard to make it to the bottom of the double hill.

“We do this every year. I just like the multiple hills,” said Jacob Castle, 16, of Conneaut.

Brandon Cross, 15, said the best way to reach the bottom of the hill was to cross your leg or lean back.

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