“People really don’t believe us that the snow is from last year, they think there is something afoot or there’s some conspiracy but it works there’s a lot of ski areas in Europe that do the same thing.” –Trollhaugen Marketing Director, Marsha Hovey
Tip of the cap to Trollhaugen Ski Resort in Dresser, Wisconsin who took a page out of the book of European ski resorts by saving a massive pile of snow from last winter to get a jump start on the ski season.
KARE11 reports this Sunday skiers and snowboarders from around the midwest flocked to Dresser to participate in a rail jam event held on snow that was preserved over the summer months under a layer of straw and an insulated tarp:
“All of this snow is saved from the trails at the ski area, so we take our big snow cats, and we push it into a massive pile in a shaded area behind where all the action is. We put two feet of straw on top of it, and we have a giant white tarp that goes on top of it to reflect the sun and keep everything insulated.” – Marsha Hovey
In previous years Trollhaugen hosted the event using ice shavings harvest off zambonis from local ice arenas.
“It was a lot of work we would have to drive all around, we had a spreadsheet with ice arenas, when we should go pick it up. It was a lot of gas money and a lot of man hours so this has definitely saved us a lot of time, and has proven to be way more productive.” – Marsha Hovey
Cheers to Trollhaugen’ for another successful year of the Open Haugen Fall Fest!
Here’s a video of Trollhaugen unearthing their snow cache for the event:
