Thank you!

Another season is upon us and I wanted to take this Blog to thank all of those who have helped to get us doing what we all love so much!

Special thank you to all of the staff who have worked so hard through some tough circumstances.  Special thank you to three of our outside operations staff, Dana Bennedict, Jim Mealey and Justin Peters who gave up there Christmas Day with their families to make snow and get the mountain groomed for boxing day.  Weather has been tough and it was quite an effort to pull it off.  Please take the time to thank them if you get the chance.

Thank you to the countless volunteers who assisted us during the off-season to complete a number of projects around the ski area.  From painting, brushing and just general clean up it was a huge help.  Searchmont is operated by a Not-For-Profit Board that has put in countless hours to keep Searchmont operational and moving forward toward a bright future and would not be operating today without such great volunteer commitment.  Thank you.

Finally, thank you to all the supporters who buy their passes early every year, sponsor various events or simply offer words of encouragement and/or support.  That support is essential to getting the facility open every year and following difficult snow years like we experienced last season it really means something.

THANK YOU!!!

Record Snowfall Advances Opening Day!

38cm is a new Sault record and the largest snowfall to hit Searchmont in years.  In fact we didn't receive that much snow in the entire month of December 2011 and it's very close to beating the total for January of last season.

We are in real good shape for a solid December 26th opening.

Temperatures are taking a dive tonight and look good for the next week and then some.  Snowmakers will be going hard to provide the best conditions possible.  Our focus will be on the main and then we will shift all 22 guns on the Goulais.

As we did last season we will open as much terrain as possible with natural conditions.  If you are like me that provided some of the best skiing all year and I can't wait to hit it again.  Don't get me wrong, I love the groomed stuff but we all benefit from a little off piste shredding.

Not long now so stay tuned.

Warm Weather Returns

Temperatures well above seasonal rolled in last night.  We attempted to make snow but that was abruptly halted as the temperatures climbed 5 degrees in an hour.  More warm weather today but it looks like we may get a window this weekend.  The good news is there is a lot of snow in the forecast.  Keep it coming!!!!

Special thank you to the students of Sault College's Adventure Recreation Construction Techniques program for giving us a hand last week.  The students help prepare the Lodge roof for roofing repairs planned for next week.  They were a HUGE! help and we greatly appreciate it.

December 21st Opening Day

Another warm stretch has arrived in the Searchmont Valley with temperatures expected around 0 degrees later today.  This is expected to hang around through the weekend before some more seasonal temperatures return for early next week.

We are making snow at every opportunity and still look for a December 21st opening day.

Snowmaking has not been without it's difficulties.  In addition to some crazy swings in temperatures we had to deal with an air pipe which split causing a loss of system pressure.  This was not an easy repair based on it's location and definitely caused some missed snowmaking opportunities but has now been fixed and we are fully operational.

There have been some cold temperatures but they seem to be coming in very short stretches.  We have seen a couple of instances where the temperature has swung by as much as 8 degrees in one hour.  Crazy!!!  In addition there have been variances in temperature from top of the mountain to the bottom of as much as 5 degrees and that's warmer at the top!!!

The forecast looks good and we will be fully at it whenever possible.

Stay tuned!  It won't be long now.

Dan