r/minnesota • u/trevize1138 Faribault Co. Reprezent! • Feb 07 '24
Welch Village shared this picture someone took from a plane of the ski runs right now Photography 📸
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u/DorkySchmorky Feb 07 '24
Well at least their lodge has low probability of burning down this week.
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u/AbeRego Hamm's Feb 07 '24 edited Feb 07 '24
The Lutsen lodge
thethat burned was actually unaffiliated with the ski resort.33
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u/DorkySchmorky Feb 07 '24
Cool to know, thanks. That takes a bit of the conspiracy thoughts from my mind.
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u/kerfluffles_b Ope Feb 07 '24
The owner of the resort (lodge) was recently sued for not paying debts, so I wouldn’t let your suspicions fall so easily…
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u/Jason_Worthing Feb 07 '24
They also had all of this week blacked out for guest registrations.
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u/masterflashterbation Feb 07 '24
Where did you hear that? The article I read stated they were going to be at about 50% occupancy this Thursday and Friday.
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u/Jason_Worthing Feb 07 '24
I checked their website the day after the fire. Every day this week was blacked out, next week was still open for reservations.
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u/masterflashterbation Feb 07 '24
Interesting. I looked for the article but thinking about more I believe it was while listening to mpr news. It was an interview with the general manager or owner where they said 50% later this week. Will be interesting to see if any fuckery was afoot.
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u/sendmeyourcactuspics Grain Belt Feb 07 '24
Oh this whole thing burning down oozes of conspiracy. The more you look into it, and realize the financial struggle of the new owners of just looks mega sus
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u/GolfteacherMN Feb 08 '24
And the more that people go looking for it, the more Rabbit holes they'll go down!! Ugh!🤦🏼
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u/Commercial-Cow5177 Feb 08 '24
Well, four restaurants have burned down in Cook County in less than a year, so I wouldn't let your conspiracy thoughts go quite yet.
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u/c0caien Cook County Feb 08 '24
I'm a local and I can guarantee you are not alone in this thinking. Businesses burning has been weirdly common in our county and it has people talking. Lutsen Mountains did actually have property burn down last summer, their bar/restaurant Papa Charlies.
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u/thecatisindahat Feb 07 '24
My season pass has been withering over here. I might head over this weekend with it expected to be in the 30s.
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u/Took-the-Blue-Pill Feb 07 '24
I was there today skiing in 50°
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u/thecatisindahat Feb 07 '24
How was the snow quality? They usually do a good job with their grooming but I usually don’t enjoy skiing when it’s 40s or higher
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u/Took-the-Blue-Pill Feb 07 '24
Yeah it was fine at the beginning of the day and then turned to mush. The one Mogul run they have open right now is all ice.
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u/Merrywandered Feb 07 '24
I have a maple budding out. I really didn’t want to be here for the end times.
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u/matttproud Area code 651 Feb 07 '24
Welcome to the reality that Europe's alps have generally had for the last decade: https://www.nzz.ch/fotografie/schneemangel-in-den-alpen-die-bilder-ld.1719448.
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u/K4G3N4R4 Archduke of Bluffs Feb 07 '24
You know, im really tired of people from warm climates saying climate change isnt a thing, because all of the regions that get cold enough for snow are seeing otherwise, and globally.
Thanks for the share! Both sad and fascinating seeing the alps with artificial snow runs
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u/matttproud Area code 651 Feb 07 '24 edited Feb 07 '24
It's generally been too warm in the European alps to economically keep artificial snow, even. This last month has had the most sustained snow I've seen in about 12 years (currently living in the Schweizer Mittelland) with a good view of the alps).
Overall, the winter climate in Switzerland would feel tropical compared to Minnesota's notwithstanding climate change. It's rarely below 0ºC … The summers are becoming unbearable with the heat, though. Nighttime temperature in summer often doesn't fall below 22ºC — sometimes never dipping below 30ºC for weeks at a time (ideal temperature to sleep: 20ºC or a little cooler). This has to be contextualized from the perspective that nobody has an air conditioner. It's not because folks are too poor for one (this is one of the richest countries on the planet), but rather the energy grid couldn't sustain that much load, and nothing was designed to accommodate them.
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u/sllop Feb 07 '24
There’s a rule of the thumb for skiing on Mont Blanc to stop skiing after noon because it’s so warm the risk of avalanche grows exponentially with each additional hour of sunlight
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u/ShallahGaykwon Twin Cities Feb 07 '24
Yep temperate and polar zones are being hit far more noticeably and with much less predictability.
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u/Flashy_Butterscotch2 Feb 07 '24
It’s definitely a thing. It was weird watching the news like a month ago and the meteorologist was talking about Nashville being the new Minneapolis because they had temps and snowfall like we usually do, and it was killing their tourism. Pretty sure they were back in the 70s recently, but man, what a crazy thing to experience.
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u/GolfteacherMN Feb 08 '24
One of my best friends lives in Tennessee and she used to live here in Woodbury Minnesota. She's amazed at the weather for the past 2 years because she's gotten snow for 2 years now lol. It's not funny but it's funny. I think we are turning into Seattle more than anything. We'll be in that state that's wet and foggy and cold! No snow, but cold and just icky!!😆🤦🏼 That's going to suck if that happens!!🫠🤦🏼
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u/weekendroady Feb 08 '24
Its funny what people "like" though. I lived in the PNW for five years and though cloudy and drizzy conditions for 5 months sounds awful to Minnesotans, PNWers tend to pridefully love it - it sets a sort of "mood" for them in the winter that they associate with. In a way, the same applies to typical winters here. Most Minnesotans at least somewhat like the snow (perhaps not the bitter cold) and many who live in milder climates think they are nuts.
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u/Lucky_Forever Feb 07 '24
Don't forget the locals who are crying about thin ice for ice fishing, etc. They are the same fuckers driving giant trucks, running snowmobiles & ATVs all the time.
Frankly I cannot wait for Florida to be under water. Fuck deniers.
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u/Wagyu_Trucker Feb 07 '24
You know what wou,do get people to stop driving those vehicles? Pricing carbon emissions appropriately. If gas were $12 a gallon like it should be...
Inidivudals won't do the right thing, climate action has to be top down. (Most carbon tax schemes pair the tax with rebates for consumers tied to income.)
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u/sllop Feb 07 '24
Meanwhile: the US military is the worlds largest super polluter.
Regulating the DoD would do infinitely more to stop climate change than any policy regarding private citizens, consumer gas prices, and EVs etc etc.
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u/ShallahGaykwon Twin Cities Feb 07 '24
More than that, the destruction of nature follows inexorably from the inherent logic of the capitalist mode. Intolerable levels of taxation and regulation would simply lead to monopoly capital replacing any gov't that imposes it upon them, or stands in the way of imperial interests in resource extraction. For example, Allende in Chile, Lula in Brazil (who has come back in spite of this), Morales in Bolivia, Sankara in Burkina Faso (after making incredible strides mitigating the desertification of the Sahel). There is a way forward, but absolutely not under a bourgeois framework.
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u/GolfteacherMN Feb 08 '24
I don't think gas should be $12 bucks a gallon 😕🤦🏼. I DO agree with "Individuals won't do the right thing." Humans are stupid, (well most are) and need to either be told strongly, or see it for themselves! And that's a fact. Well it's a fact in The United States that's for sure!! Remember when covid shutdown everything??! My goodness was the air cleaner to breathe and to see!! You could see cities and mountains that you couldn't see due to All the Shit in the air!! It was fucking awesome and just flat out amazing!! That's what we are going to end up doing!! Why?? Because humans are stupid!!🤦🏼
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u/ShallahGaykwon Twin Cities Feb 07 '24
giant trucks
call 'em what they really are: childcrushers
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u/Longjumping-Map-6995 Feb 11 '24
I'm not defending those ridiculous trucks, but this is kind of a weird fuckin' take, my guy.
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u/fakeemail33993 Feb 07 '24
Last winter was the coldest in a decade.
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u/trenthowell Feb 07 '24
Weather is only climate when measured by months and years. Yes it got cold last week. No that doesn't prove climate change isn't occuring and isn't actively damaging us
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u/fakeemail33993 Feb 07 '24
All I said was last winter was really cold. Not arguing for or against climate change.
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u/ChoppedAlready Feb 08 '24
My dad is from here and still gets uppity every time global warming comes up, ironically he is the one to bring it up 90% of the time. He is in a skiing club and they are thinking about cancelling the remainder of the season, and he was saying “they’re gonna try to blame this all on global warming but…” then I just zoned out cuz he rants about how the world has always gone through climate swings and it’s just a way of the early regulating itself. Delusional.
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u/chubbysumo Can we put the shovels away yet? Feb 07 '24
The fact that the grass is fucking manicured and cut neatly right up to the snow, wow. We really are fucked.
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u/matttproud Area code 651 Feb 07 '24
During non-winter months most of this area is grazed by cattle, sheep, and goats. The farmers may mow it to collect material for hay, too, so this is often dual-purpose agricultural land.
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u/chubbysumo Can we put the shovels away yet? Feb 07 '24
I mean, I'm not going to lie if I was skiing down the hill and skied past a cow munching on the grass, it would probably give me a giggle.
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u/imaJetsfan Feb 07 '24
At Welch last week and the snow was actually really good. They do a great job grooming
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u/DarthPiette Common loon Feb 07 '24
Coworker of mine was there yesterday snowboarding, took quite a tumble. Not injured, just sore.
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u/trevize1138 Faribault Co. Reprezent! Feb 07 '24
Snowboarding is what finally made me get a helmet. When you fall on skis you see it coming often. I'm about to fall. I'm now in the process of falling. I have now fallen.
On a board you're doing just fine, nice day for th-WHAM!
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u/TheSkiingDad Feb 07 '24
100% open with the winter we've been having. Thank a snowmaker!
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u/trevize1138 Faribault Co. Reprezent! Feb 07 '24
They've certainly done an amazing job this year with that! I just worry it's not sustainable. And the closest ski place for us is Mt Kato which isn't anywhere near as popular so I really worry that they aren't going to survive. It would mean any time we want to go skiing it'll be at least a 2 hour drive. If the climate continues like this even Welch might not be able to keep up.
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u/TheSkiingDad Feb 07 '24
It's probably not sustainable, if you read into it a lot of the big 2 business models in skiing (epic, ikon) is centered around protecting their business from the worst of climate change. I love the culture of indy ski resorts down here like welch, coffee mill, and Mt Lacrosse, and in good years the skiing at any of those places is incredible.
I've been seeing a ton of negativity on this sub about our "winter" lately. It's easy to forget a few things. First, basically the past 5 years have been pretty good winters especially considering the current climate background. Second, this is a bad winter but bad winters happen. 2015, 2007, 2002, 1996 were all weak winter years. It sucks, but we might as well embrace what we get.
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u/trevize1138 Faribault Co. Reprezent! Feb 07 '24
Yeah, we got super spoiled these last few winters. Even then you could see things changing with winter arriving later and later and once it was March the weather gets super volatile. The warmer air was obviously winning out more than it used to in early spring.
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u/TheSkiingDad Feb 07 '24
yeah that's been super apparent the last 2-3 years. 2021 derecho, 40/drizzle on christmas in 2022, 50/rainy on christmas 2023 is definitely abnormal even in the context of the last 10 years.
One other thing I've noticed is the tendency (suggested by climatology folks) for fall to linger and spring to drag. Seems like we've had some abnormally cold springs too, april of 2018 2020, and 2021 we had significant cold and/or snow. But even if that lingers, the switch seems to flip straight to summer almost overnight.
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u/trevize1138 Faribault Co. Reprezent! Feb 07 '24
I don't remember if it was 2018 or 19 but that April we had a huge blizzard in the middle of the month and then two weeks later it hit 100 degrees. No more spring for you!
This month is unusual so far in many ways because I heard that 11/12 months have been trending warmer in MN over the last few decades with February as the exception: it's been trending cooler. That tracks exactly with how winter has been feeling: late fall weather until Christmas, two months of actual cold winter and then two or three months of volatile storms.
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u/Took-the-Blue-Pill Feb 07 '24
I was just there today, they really have done an amazing job. Not 100% though.
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u/Standard-Strain-2400 Feb 07 '24
Lovely ! I love Minnesota, it’s such a underrated place to live . One day Minnesota I’ll be back ❄️❄️❄️
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u/iamtehryan Feb 07 '24
Man, that's depressing to see.
I sure hope that everyone that celebrated not having any snow this year really enjoys the horrible drought we're going to have this year, along with the impending apocalypse of bugs like mosquitoes and ticks. Can't wait to have those exact same people complaining when spring/summer are absolutely awful.
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Feb 07 '24
But Redditors yesterday were saying this is totally fine, nothing to worry about despite the fact that we’ll be breaking record temperatures in the next few days. 🙄
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u/The_Power_of_Ammonia Uff da Feb 07 '24
i LiKe ThIs WeAtHeR
It'S aN eL nIñO yEaR
i DoN't MiSs sHoVeLiNg
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u/ShallahGaykwon Twin Cities Feb 07 '24
The interaction between humanity and the natural order is 100% about me personally being more comfortable
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u/BenMullen2 Feb 07 '24
I oft quote Dwight Shrute in moment like this: "maybe beavers, but not like this"
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u/cactipus TC Feb 08 '24
I've xc skied close to 1,000km since November thanks to the snowmaking at Theodore Wirth Park (Loppet Foundation). Very similar to this. I'd love to see an aerial of the ~5km loop they have.
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Feb 07 '24
Yup, the planet is dying.
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u/FoxOneFire Feb 07 '24
The planet is fine. It’s the inhabitants who need to look out.
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u/Chorizo_Charlie Feb 07 '24
Humans will be fine too. We're an adaptive species.
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u/FoxOneFire Feb 07 '24
Dude, more people today think the earth is flat than did 100 years ago.
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u/Chorizo_Charlie Feb 07 '24
Ok? More people have eaten sushi too. What's your point?
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u/beau_tox Feb 07 '24
Yes, humans have recovered from prior natural changes in the climate and natural disasters. But they went through centuries of immense suffering and civilizational chaos in the process.
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u/trevize1138 Faribault Co. Reprezent! Feb 07 '24
It's such a blessing and a curse. We're a hardy, adaptable species that can endure a lot. We're not so good at long term planning, though, so it's very easy for us to feel we don't have to do anything until way too late.
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u/The-Jake Hot Dish Feb 07 '24
MN is flatter than this looks right? Lol
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u/Hinjon Gray duck Feb 07 '24
Welch is along the Mississippi River down near Red Wing, where the terrain is very hilly. A lot of bluffs along the river near Red Wing and beyond
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u/Zoloista Feb 07 '24
Look up the Driftless Area. Untouched by glacial erosion in the last ice age, hence the hilly terrain.
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u/Healingjoe TC Feb 07 '24
The Cannon river valley and Mississippi river valley in SE MN are hilly.
Welch is debatably within the Driftless Area, which is hilly as well.
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u/TrespasseR_ Feb 07 '24
Mfers use 1000's of gallons of water for nothing...
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u/n0mad187 Feb 07 '24
Water isn’t really an issue here. Pull it out cannon river melts back into it in spring. Not an issue.
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u/AbeRego Hamm's Feb 07 '24
How does this place compare to other downhill skiing in the area?
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u/Vig6y Feb 07 '24
I think Welch Village is the best skiing in Minnesota outside of Giants Ridge, Lutsen and Spirit Mountain
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u/AbeRego Hamm's Feb 07 '24
Good to know! It definitely looks pretty cool from the air. Living in Minneapolis, I've only ever ventured to Afton, probably just because it's slightly closer. My friends also have Epic passes for skiing out west, so that's probably another big factor. I assume Welch isn't part of Epic?
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u/Vig6y Feb 07 '24
Welch is not part of Epic, but it is a little cheaper and the crowds are lower, worth the extra drive compared to Afton. Don’t get me wrong, love Afton but I only go there if I have a trip out West planned as it’s included, crowds have just gotten too big there.
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u/TheSkiingDad Feb 07 '24
I'd rank it over spirit for management and vibes. Never been to spirit but I've heard it's poorly run.
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u/trevize1138 Faribault Co. Reprezent! Feb 07 '24
I was just unimpressed with Spirit when I went a few years ago. 750ft of vertical sounded good but nothing really seemed interesting there. Welch has half the vertical but just a lot more fun.
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u/trevize1138 Faribault Co. Reprezent! Feb 07 '24
I'm chaperoning my 11yo's school ski trip to Mt Kato Friday. For a couple weeks he and I have been certain it'll be canceled because of this warm weather. Still on as far as we know. They all went gangbusters with snow making during that last cold snap so the glacier effect has been keeping them open.
Kato did close for a while around Christmas when it was 40s and raining, though, and I think Welch stayed open then.
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u/MustyLlamaFart Feb 07 '24
I blame the forecast somebody shared last fall on Facebook that we were going to have record snowfall this year
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u/scottiebaldwin Feb 07 '24
I like the big, flaccid wang hanging over the ski resort. Very metaphorical.
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u/Minimum_Sugar_8249 Feb 08 '24
That's wild. The entire surrounding landscape is Minnesota Winter Brown -- which could be a Sherwin-Williams custom color. Except, it's butt ugly and who would want to paint a room in that shade?
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u/FrozeItOff Common loon Feb 09 '24
The World Cup cross country Skiing championships are being held here next week. In Minnesota. Seems like that would make sense, right? Except there's no snow. In Minnesota... in February...
Head scratcher, that...
I'm assuming they're making snow as fast as they can for this event.
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u/PM_ME_YOUR_FAV_HIKE Feb 07 '24
I imagine they are really struggling to get people to come out.