Long Winter Ski Season Makes Up for Extreme Cold

The harsh winter has been a mixed blessing for the winter recreation business in Wisconsin, with ski hills staying open longer than normal after being hurt by the extreme cold in February.

Despite temperatures above 50 degrees this week in Wausau, the entire north slope of Rib Mountain is bright white, covered with snow. Vicki Baumann, general manager of the Granite Peak Ski Area, says they’ll open for three days this coming weekend – the first time ever this late in the season.

“We had made quite a bit of snow this year and above average snowfall for our area,” said Baumann. “We have so much snow that we have decided to stay open one final weekend.”

The harsh winter has been good and bad. Baumann says they opened early – two weeks before Thanksgiving – and they’re closing late. But the extreme cold hurt business in February.

“It has been a very cold winter, and we have felt that,” said Baumann. “We actually had to close twice two days in a row, which is something that we have never done before. But we have had the strongest March that we’ve had.”

Further north, Minocqua Winter Park was able to keep its 45 miles of groomed cross country trails open this past weekend. Board member Pam Fashingbauer says they drew 10,000 people this season.

“We had one of our best seasons ever, even with the cold,” said Fishingbauer. “I think skiers just got used to putting on an extra layer and coming out and skiing.”

Fashingbauer says she’ll take this winter’s cold over last winter’s warmth: “We did end up closing for a week last year because we had a thaw in January.”

At the Mont Du Lac ski hill in Superior and Trollhaugen in Dresser, it’s a similar story – a long season making up for a cold February. Mont Du Lac will open this coming weekend. Trollhaugen may open on a limited basis if it doesn’t get too warm.