Snow Factory at Powder Ridge Promises Black Friday Opening in 2025
Imagine having the shortest ski season in the warmest state in New England as a resort owner. You have to rely on Mother Nature’s fickle moods to bless you with a dusting of snow, and even then it almost never arrives in time for the holiday season. What’s a guy to do? If you’re John Hayes, owner of Connecticut’s Powder Ridge, you buy a snow factory!
In an interview with the New England Ski Journal, Hayes describes the “can we open or can’t we” song and dance they have to go through every year that lead him to buy the DeMaclenko Snow Pro. He was not messing around with this purchase! The machine can pump out enough snow to cover a football field within 24 hours, in practically any weather, which allows the resort to plan for opening on Black Friday with confidence in 2025.
Hayes also mentions that he doesn’t expect everyone who visits Powder Ridge to be a skier or boarder and recognizes that many folks come to shop, dine, or go tubing. The snow factory allows for a longer season for everyone in the family to enjoy the resort. Although Hayes expects that in the next five years 70% of ski resorts will have similar machines supplementing their snow totals, he believes they are a feeder resort, saying, “We don’t want to compete with the northern ski areas. They’re our complement. We want our customers going to destination resorts after we teach them how (to ski).”
So, if you're looking for a guaranteed dose of winter fun this year, skip the weather app and head to Powder Ridge. With their million-dollar snow machine working overtime, there’s always corduroy in Connecticut.
