GM Corner update – 11/22/22

To the Massanutten Community:

If you’ve been in The Kettle recently, you’ve probably noticed something new: SNOW! We’re making it whenever the temperatures are right, and they’ve been pretty good lately. We expect a bit of a warmup this week, and then things look good for snowmaking again next weekend. Barring anything unexpected, we expect to open at least some ski terrain and the Tubing Park on Friday, November 25.

Skiers and snowboarders are likely most interested in the four new trails built over the summer, but from my perspective the truly important thing is how we’re making that snow: with our best energy efficiency ever. In addition to new fan guns (those are the BIG guns that propel water droplets into the atmosphere with a fan), we’ve added a LOT of new air/water guns that use 85% less energy per given volume of snow under most circumstances.

Additionally, these guns are semi-automatic; with older units, it could take snowmakers as much as an hour to start all the guns on a given loop of trail. These guns are different: each can be turned on at the click of a button – and, in the future, can be fully automated such that they can turn on automatically when computer control systems sense the right temperature and humidity. Why is that important? Because that means startup and shutdown are much faster, saving energy and reducing our carbon footprint, and because we’ll be able to take better advantage of snowmaking temperature “windows” when snowmaking weather is marginal.

Two more notes on improvements for the upcoming season. First, we expect the renovations to the restaurant in the WaterPark to be completed to allow a “soft open” before Christmas (menu still being finalized, but yes, seafood will feature prominently), and the new Perfect Break recreation center above the Powell Conference Room in the old MPOA office building will be opening soon. We expect to have an MPOA Open House there in January – it’s tentatively scheduled for January 12 at 5:00 p.m.

You’ve almost certainly noticed six new Regal Vistas villas under construction; that project is visible from Resort Drive. We expect the first units to be ready for occupancy midsummer of 2023, and the remainder complete by some time in the ‘23-‘24 winter season.  This small addition to Regal Vistas was made possible by the removal of two very dated brick ranch houses on Resort Drive.  We hope you’ll agree that the new Regal Vista units will provide a nice visual improvement for our entrance corridor.

Next week, we’ll post again, specifically about envisioning the future for the Massanutten community, and how your input will help us chart the future.

Until then: on behalf of Massanutten Resort and its employee-owners, I wish you all a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend.

Cordially,

Matthias Smith, VP and General Manager, Massanutten Resort