In a little over a month the Twin Ports will start seeing some snowflakes this winter. Hunters can expect rain instead of snow in the weekend forecast, but plenty of local ski hills are hard at work preparing for the winter season. Chester Bowl and Mont Du Lac Resort are trimming back trees, and waiting patiently for cooler temperatures

Although Mont du Lac Resort’s Hill Manager Mike O’Hara says right now it’s just too warm to turn on their snow guns.

“We can make snow, you know, roughly 34 degrees, 35 degrees, even if the humidity is low enough. That doesn’t happen usually first thing in the twin ports for snowmaking season. But, you know, we’re generally looking to be around 30 degrees. That’s when we can start making really good snow,” O’Hara said. “It’s always a rough start. Sun comes out during the day, shut everything off and come back in about one o’clock in the morning and start it all over again.”

O’Hara says last year’s warm winter weather made Mont du Lac’s maintenance crews using 30 to 40 percent more water just to keep the maintain the ski hill. Although this year the hope is to start making snow in the right conditions in mid-December.

“We’ve been speculating the date for some time. Originally looked like the 12th. And although it’s cold, the next day is 50 degrees if you looked at forecast at this moment,” O’Hara said. “So probably Thursday around the 14th. It looks like at least at night we can continually make snow.”

Other local ski hills like Chester Bowl have volunteers leading the way for clearing any brush. Sam Luoma says the volunteers are always ready to lend a hand removing branches and invasive plants so kids can stay safe while learning how to ski later on in the winter.

“When we have families join us for the winter, they commit to doing volunteer hours with us. A lot of the families are here just helping to chip away at their commitment,” Luoma said. “It’s kind of a double edged sword. This time of year, the nice weather makes that work a lot more pleasant. Pretty soon we really hope that the temps drop and we can start making snow and open on schedule.”

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