Lady Antebellum

If you were at Country Jam this weekend you may have had the privledge of seeing Lady Antebellum- The 2008 Academy of Country Music's "Top New Vocal Group"

While they were in the area they did a photo shoot here at Powderhorn. Watch for familiar views on their next album cover!

http://ladyantebellum.musiccitynetworks.com/

Summer Lift Operations

Many people ask us why the lift is not running in the summer for public rides. Would you like the long answer or short? :)

We have a full time lift maintenance crew here even in the summer although the lifts are not running. These guys have a lot to do in the off-season to make sure the lift is ready again to haul us all to the top come winter. The cables, grips, and mechanics of each lift are tested every summer. Sometimes a cable will be x-rayed (for lack of a better term) to make sure there are no weaknesses. Sometimes a cable has to be spliced. All of these things take a significant amount of time. In fact, right now, the West End is naked!



Another reason that the lifts do not run in the summer comes down to cost. We agree, it would be a great thing to offer the public, however it is pretty expensive. Did you know you not only have to have a full lift crew on duty but ski patrol members as well? Yep, even in the summer. If the lift were to breakdown, ski patrol would still be needed to evacuate people from the lift. This means they would need lots of 4-wheelers to reach everything under the lift.

So that, in a nutshell, is why we cannot run the lift throughout the summer. BUT, we will be running the lift for TWO Color Sundays this year so mark your calendars!

September 21 & 28

Come One, Come All

The disc golf course is finally open! Baskets are being placed as I type this. As always, the course is free to play and now open 7 days/week.

Stop by the Trader Cafe if you need extra discs, drinks, or snacks. Enjoy!

Teasers

Need that snow fix since it's 90+ degrees outside? Next season's ski & snowboard film teasers are leaking out. Here's a few just to get you started...

Snowboard

Double Decade- MDP


It's Always Snowing Somewhere- Burton Snowboards


Ski

Claim- Matchstick Productions


Reasons- Poor Boyz Productions

Apologies

Sorry the blog went stale for a bit. We didn't fall off the face of the earth! We'll have the biking and disc golf updates to you soon along with other news.

Disc Golf Update

Many of you have been asking when our disc golf course is going to open. We had hoped it would be dry enough to open in last weekend but it didn't happen. However, with these warm temperatures we are optimistic that we can open it by July 1st.

Currently holes 1, 3, 17 and 18 are soggy little bogs in key areas. We are monitoring the course every couple days for progress. The Forest Service will be up again in the next week or two to sign off on the opening. We'll keep you posted!

Bugs

I always forget about the bugs in the summer. Most people...ok maybe most women...are afraid of at least one type of bug.

Now that it's pretty warm up here we have windows and doors open in our offices. This has already lead to several bugs and critters making their way into our personal spaces. A marmot decided to explore the maze of cables and computers in our IT manager's office. I think it could have easily built a den in the fort of old computer towers he has in there. We've also had some birds in the buildings.

These instances are usually cute and funny. The bugs however are not.

Yesterday I found something that looked like it was from a Sci-Fi movie crawling on my shoulder. Does worker's comp cover you if you are injured falling out of your chair because of a bug? Today there are lots of bees in my office. That's fine as long as I get some honey out of the deal. But if I end up puffing to marshmellow status that's where I draw the line. Again, worker's comp?

Thankfully the mosquitos are not out yet. So ditch the near 100 temps this weekend and come up here!

Wildewood Restaurant Menu

Someone made a great request on our survey to see the Wildewood Restaurant menu. Be warned! It will make you hungry. Click here to see the menu.

If you come up for dinner, order the chips & salsa. The chips are homemade, fried-on-the-spot tortillas. A few of us almost ate our weight in them last week.

Wednesday-Saturday
5-9pm

Sunday Brunch
10am-3pm

p.s. If you would like to help us out by answering a quick 10 questions, click here

Chick-fil-A Family Night

Powderhorn is hosting Family Night at Chick-fil-A tomorrow (Tuesday) from 5-8pm. Kids 10 and under will receive a FREE lift ticket with the purchase of a combo meal. Limit the first 100 so get there as close to 5pm as you can!

We'll also have free stickers and information on all that Powderhorn has to offer this summer. Word on the street is that the Chick-fil-A Cow and Mogul the Powderhorn Moose are going to have a wrestling match. Don't want to miss that!

Name a Run

Naming a new ski run is a fun project. We'd like to let you in on it this year. We have a list going of names we like and we'd like to hear your ideas too. Then we'll put together the top 5 names and post them as the Poll on http://www.powderhorn.com/ so everyone can vote.

Have you always thought 'Screamin Banshee' would make a good name? Or maybe you have a story that would lend itself to a good run name. Post your ideas in a comment here or send them to ski@powderhorn.com.

Keep it clean! We don't need someone's child saying, "Daddy...what's a ____?"

Biking & Hiking Update

Our biking and hiking trails are technically open, however you may find some areas muddy and pretty soggy. We are in the process of expanding the system right now. If you are looking for trail conditions and updates throughout the summer, or want to see the trail map go here.

Rail Jam Photos

Thanks to everyone who came out to Gene Taylor's on Saturday. Two lucky (and talented) Powderhorn riders have qualified for the DNA Evolution Tour finals in Las Vegas!








Yes that is on purpose. And yes, he stuck it for the win.

























This is Jordan. He is only 4 years old! I didn't know Burton boots came that small!

Weekend Events

There's a couple very different Powderhorn related events going on this weekend. Enough to deserve another post today to make sure you're all in the loop.

Saturday, June 7
Gene Taylors
DNA Evolution Tour Rail Jam
Noon-9pm
http://www.dnaevolutiontour.com/

Come to compete, watch, shop the big sale, eat some food, and pick up some free Powderhorn stickers. Winners get cash and prizes plus go on to the finals in Vegas!

Here is what the setup looks like this year.




Sunday, June 8
Sunset Sounds
Powderhorn- Sunset Deck
Featuring Chris Hughes
Starting at 5pm

This is the first of our new summer music series! The Sunset Grille & Bar will be open.

Snow in June

Mark it down in the books. It's snowing in June! Thankfully it's just on the top half of the mountain and it won't stick around past today. Check out the webcam . It's raining steadily and is making it difficult to work this morning. I'd rather have a blankey and a book today than a computer and phone.

Side note- The Wildewood Restaurant is now open for the summer! Hours are Wednesday-Saturday, 5-9pm and Sunday Brunch 10am-3pm. A few of us went over for appetizers last night and it was amazing! Try the chips and salsa. The chips are the real deal- fried tortillas mmmmm. We also tried the Profiteroles, which are a girl's best friend. Just about everything is homemade. Many of us plan to work our way down the menu this summer. Join us!

Survey Says...

We are running a survey right now to find out more about how you like to get information and what you think we could do better with our website. If you'd like to take the survey (it's only 10 questions) click here.

The feedback we've had so far has been great. One of our many summer projects is to give the website a new design. It's time to spruce it up a little. Many of you have indicated on the survey that you love the webcam and that we should get more. We're looking at lots of cool options to place another webcam somewhere on the mountain. Some have also requested that the Wildewood menus be posted on the site. We'll get that going too!

So take the survey and let us know what gadgets, gizmos, and content you would like to see!

Lost & Found

Since things are starting to dry up we've been out walking the mountain. It's pretty fun to see what you can find. Lots of loose change can be found, especially in the areas where folks learn to ski/ride. Goodies can also be found underneath the chairlifts.

Today might take the cake though. One of our mountain ops guys just happened to stumble across a wallet under one of the lifts. The very dirty and torn up wallet contained a Colorado driver's licence and Sam's Club card from 1992! That's 16 years of winters this thing has been through!

We found the guy in the local phone book so he will be getting a fun phone call today!

Greening Up

We're finally starting to see more green than white. This weekend's temperatures took a toll on the snowpack. Now there are just patches of snow near the top of the mountain. We still hope to open the disc golf course by Father's Day. If temperatures stay this warm, the ground should be dry enough.

Today we begin clearing the way for new bike trails to expand on what we built last year. The first trail will give easier access out. Say yes to switchbacks! Other more intermediate trails will be built as well. I'll have pictures and updates as that project progresses.

Side note- the Alpine Trader has hats, gloves, and jackets 30-50% off right now. So swing by and snag something for next year at a great price!