FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Wirth Winter Recreation Area Update

Upcoming week in weather (Dec 15-21)

The next week looks to be moderate for making snow with lows in the 20’s and high teens to highs in the mid 20’s to low 30’s.

I want to take this chance to educate everyone on the conditions needed for snowmaking at Wirth. 54 degree well water is used to make the snow at Wirth which is not ideal. Because our water is so warm we are only able to make snow in temperatures up to around 26F degrees or colder, depending on the day. We also need low air humidity - the lower the humidity the more snow we can make. Combine low temps with low humidity and we can make a lot of snow. Overnight is generally the best time to make snow since that is generally the time these two factors are the lowest. Even so, we are staffed 7 days a week and 24 hours a day to make sure we are able to make snow whenever the weather permits.

Natural snow ski trails

Due to the weather over the last few days we have lost all of our natural snow pack. All trails including the golf courses are closed until adequate snow has fallen to groom and maintain them.

Snow making loop

We currently have just over 1 kilometer of the manmade ski trails available to ski. Due to the warm weather we have lost a small portion of this snow but are mostly in good shape. We will have to add some snow back into a few small sections of what is currently open due to thin snow conditions. This will set us back a few days but we will continue making snow as long as the weather stays cold.

Tubing Hill

We plan to move three snow guns to the tube hill on Tuesday morning and begin making snow there. The time table for getting the hill open greatly depends on the weather. If we do not have consistently cold weather we cannot give a concrete date on how long it will take to snow in the hill. On average with good conditions it takes 7 to 10 days to make the snow and then push it out with the snow cat so the hill is level and ready for use.

Snowboarding Hill

The snowboard hill is generally the last area snowed in. At this time we cannot give a concrete date on the snowboard hills availability. Once the ski trails and tube hill are finished we will move to the board hills

Scheduling

We have the Minneapolis Ski Club's Holiday Relays scheduled here for this Saturday Dec 20th.  The trail will be closed from 9:00 am to 2:00 pm for this race.