First Chairs of the Season?

According to AccuWeather Duluth, it's Friday November 18th before the predicted high is below 40* -- I'm certainly no expert, but I don't think they will be making snow for a while yet.

But then, I'm a cross-country kinda guy . . .

Snowmaking systems can be tweaked to make snow (ok, slush) above freezing temps, so I'm pretty sure Lutsen is already sucking the Poplar dry...sorry, another topic, to be sure.

I believe Wild and Trollhaugen down in the metro are partially open.

Snowmaking.  Ugh.

Yup, wild and trollhaugen are both open (one or two crowded runs)

Yuck.

Poplar?  You mean the invasive species?

Geez, the forecast today sure is different today from yesterday.

And they would have to put down a humongous amount of snow this time of year to cool the ground enough to hold the snow.  Just think of the energy use we support to do that.

Beartooth Pass.  Leave at 4am, arrive 9pm. Au Natural.

Here's the scene from the St. Louis Bay today. You can see white spots on a few runs at old Spirit Mountain. Snow making has begun!

Ugh, the Lutsen/Poplar River thing is killing me. I can't imagine there is anything that comes close to doing as much for the Lutsen area economy than the ski hill, but it also drives me nuts that a company can apparently completely ignore environmental regulations, get caught, and see no consequences. I both ski and trout fish... my brain might explode.

And more to the point of the post, December skiing around here has always sucked in my expereience. Maybe the UP is the way to go for earlier season?

I heard, as of Saturday, the DNR has yet to approve Lutsen to start using the Poplar river water for snow-making. Apparently the river is too low and they need precipitation before they can start making snow.  Could be a short ski season at Lutsen this year!  If any!

The DNR gave its approval on Nov. 10 for Lutsen Mountains to pump water from the Poplar River.

The long-term solution is that water will have to be pumped from Lake Superior instead, but the estimate is that it will cost $2 million to set that up.