This Week at Buck Hill | Pilot Episode 12/1/2022
Welcome to the pilot episode of the new weekly news series, This Week at Buck Hill. The goal of the video series to offer clear insights into the operations of Buck Hill and help you have a better experience on snow. Lets dive into this week…
The Outdoor Operation team has been working tirelessly around the clock since the middle of November to build the deepest base as possible. The 2021 capital investments of over 7,000′ linear of additional waterlines, four Technoalpin TF10 snowguns (there’s now over 100 snowguns on hill), three high capacity water pumps, and a state-of-the-art water pump house allow for over 5,000 gallons of water a minute to run through the snowmaking system. The more snow we have, the long the season will be. With the increased snow depth we’ll be able to withstand the warmer spring temps when they come. With the continued effort of the ops team we were able to open on Tuesday, November 22nd!
It’s always great to kick off the season before Thanksgiving and those who came out to enjoy the snow radiated with excitement and smiles. Fast forward a couple of days into the weekend and it felt like spring conditions with sunny skies and a temps that ranged from the high 40°s to low 50°s. After a great opening weekend we were followed with Minnesota’s first pow day with over 8″ of fresh snow falling on Buck Hill! The new snow will till in perfectly with the snow that’s already been made for a great underfoot feel moving forward.
Currently 90% of our terrain skiable is open with 100% of our chairlifts and surface lifts spinning. It’s expected, with the ferocity of snowmaking at hand, that we should be open at 100% within the next week or so. This could be the earliest that we’ve been open with 100% skiable terrain ever. Party. At the moment snow tubing is not open, more on that soon…
With a heavy emphasis on snowmaking it’s obvious that early season hours will vary with the fluctuation of temperature and humidity. That said, the following will be operational hours for skiing and snowboarding over the next few days:
- Thursday, December 1st | 3:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.
- Friday, December 2nd | 3:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.
- Saturday, December 3rd | 8:30 a.m. – 9:00 p.m.
- Sunday, December 4th | 8:30 a.m. – 9:00 p.m.
- Monday, December 5th & Beyond… TBA
In other news Buck ’54 Bar & Grill has a lot going on. To start, they have a brand new winter menu that will tickle your tastebuds with staff favorites being the Giant Pretzel (seriously, it’s massive), and the Fried Chicken Sandwich (order it with the hot honey slaw and thank us later). Next up the Tap Takeover events have been reactivated for the beer lover in all of us. In partnership with local craft breweries, Buck ’54 Bar & Grill allows for the taps to be taken over with specialty beers that are generally not available the public. On Wednesday, November 30th Uteplis Brewing took-over and they’ll be back again this Saturday, December 3rd for more hangs and swag giveaways from 2:00 – 4:00 p.m. Surly Brewing will take over the taps on Wednesday, December 7th starting at 6:00 p.m. with an insane line up of Surly DARKNESS from 2019 (Barrel Aged), 2020, 2021, AND 2022!!! Lastly, this Friday, December 2nd Preston Gunderson will be giving a FREE live performance at the Live Music Series from 6:00 – 9:00 p.m.! If you want to hear the voice of an angel stop by Buck ’54.
Rounding out This Week at Buck Hill will always be “The Clip of the Week.” What’s the Clip of the Week? It’s opportunity for YOU to have your content showcased in the the This Week at Buck Hill episodes by tagging Buck Hill and hashtagging #buckhill on Facebook and Instagram.
That’s it for this week, we’ll see you next week for This Week at Buck Hill!