ZANESFIELD, OH (WCMH) — If you love being outdoors this time of the year, weather conditions are perfect for skiing, snowboarding and tubing. Mad River Mountain officials say they already have a three-foot-base of snow and will continue making it through the week.
Things are moving in the right direction for the resort as the temperatures and snow cover are ideal, just in time for the booming holiday traffic.
The 2016 the season started early, but then deteriorated.
“Last year we had an early start. We got started in the middle of December, but then we got off in a rain pattern. It seemed to rain every Tuesday through January and February,” said Michael Mehnovets, Marketing Manager.
On top of that, their ski lodge burned to the ground in September 2015 and two temporary buildings were put in its place. The lodge has been rebuilt and is now fully open for its second season and Mehnovets says business during the holidays is brisk.
Amanda Janes has grown from a toddler to a budding downhiller on these slopes and knows when the conditions are right.
“Honestly I got up this morning and my dad drove me down here and I skied down and it was absolutely perfect,” says Janes. There was fresh snow from the guns and the guns were still blowing so, every time I would make a run there would be perfectly new snow so it was beautiful,” she says.
Officials say the key to a perfect season is freezing temperatures, but they don’t call last season a failure.
“It wasn’t disappointing, you could never just get ahead and just stay ahead. Where with this season we are hoping with the cold temperatures we are seeing this week, we are going to make a lot of snow out here, get 100 percent open and then stop snow making,” says Mehnovets.
Janes has her own prediction about conditions this year.
“I think this is going to be a perfect year, because if you look at the forecast now for the next 10 days I don’t think it goes above 25 degrees, so if they get some good snow down, a base, they could be good all the way through March,” she says.
Mehnovets says when it snows in Ohio backyards people think about these hills, which is good for business. Central Ohio had several snowfalls before and during the holidays, with natural snow on the ground in and around the resort.
On December 30th hometown legend and Olympic snowboarder Louis Vito conducts his Rail Jam at Mad River Mountain. A donated canned food item gains entry to the event.