Norway, Michigan — Norway Mountain’s 2024-25 winter was a season to remember for a couple of reasons. For one, it was the first time since the 2016-17 season that Norway Mountain was open for lift-serviced operations. Thanks to the work of new owner Justin Hoppe, Norway had a successful reopening this past ski season. While many ski areas threw in the towel weeks or months ago, Norway decided to try to have lift-serviced skiing once again.
Norway Mountain made some buzz last Wednesday when they announced that they were planning to reopen for skiing on Saturday, May 3rd. This was thanks to a snow pile that featured a depth of seven feet.
Work then began on moving the snow around to create a full top-to-bottom trail, which was Valkyrie and Leipter. Things were going smoothly until they discovered an issue with the snow groomer. After this issue was discovered, Norway announced that they likely wouldn’t be able to open on May 3rd.
However, they were able to solve the problem expeditiously. Norway did end up fixing the groomer thanks to a neighbor coming by to help out. Norway operated on Saturday from 10 am-4 pm, with skiing from the Von chairlift. However, the Michigan ski area wasn’t able to complete the last 100 feet before the base terminal of the Von chairlift in time, so guests had to take their skis off and walk to the bottom of the lift. For May skiing, that’s not too bad, especially considering that the vast majority of ski areas in North America are closed for the season.
The situation shows the resiliency of the Norway Mountain crew, who have done great work bringing back a ski area that seemed like it would be closed for good.
Image Credits: Norway Mountain
