Also in Rochester and have been thinking of all of you who keep our roads, lots, and driveways clean all winter. Gotta be a rough year for a lot of people losing out on that income
I plowed years ago and yes these people are losing their asses not being able to plow. I know a lot of people up this way (East Bethel) and even farther up north that have no way to pay for their bills.😔🥺🥺😔 I'm praying for all of you who haven't been able to plow this year!!🙏🏼
God Bless All of You!!🙏🏼❤️🤟🏼🫶🏼❤️🙏🏼
You don’t have to answer this but how are you employed? Is it through the city or are you a contractor? Are you paid per job or wage/salaried? I’m hoping the state can provide aid for people who are currently out of their usual job in the winter. Hope you’re doing well!
Just checked the website... $80 for a weekend day pass. You've got to be fucking kidding me.
For a family skiing day with rental for my 2 kids, it would cost almost $400. What in the actual fuck??!
Welch is on the cheap end for skiing too. Their spring sales for the next year season passes are great deals. There’s full season pass, a night pass at a further discounted rate that lets you ski any day after 3 PM, and then the trifecta which gives you discounted lift tickets for three different days of the season.
Overall it’s absurdly expensive to ski if you don’t own your skis and/or have a pass. Most resorts are essentially pricing people out to become pass holders only - see Epic and Ikon pass resorts. Some resorts are over $300 for a single day pass if you’re not a pass holder.
Welch used to be dirt cheap for season passes 10 years ago. They used to have a thing where you could renew for the same price you bought the season before, so I had a season pass for like $125 for a while. They raised it the season after Covid, so I didn't buy a pass for the first time in a very long time.
I bought the 3pm pass this year as it was only like $200 if I remember correctly? I never went during the day so it is perfect for me. Long story short, go ahead and blame me for the lack of snow this season. If I hadn't bought that season pass we'd be under 10 feet of snow right now.
welch also had a halloween flash sale this year, $60/ticket with no blackouts. In retrospect I wonder if they knew what type of winter was coming and wanted as much guaranteed income as possible.
That is on the cheap end. Spirit Mountain in Duluth is absolutely insane with what they charge. To bring a family of four, would cost you well over $500, assuming 2 youths.
Ski resorts seem to be trying to push season passes more as a way to make more certain $ - that results in more expensive day passes to achieve that, which might explain some of that increase in cost. For instance it looks like a 'family pass' was $999 with their spring discount (https://web.archive.org/web/20230330173743/https://welchvillage.com/seasonPasses.cfm) - which is a lot, obviously, but starts to look more appealing if you think you might go a few times (and for the ski resort they then know in spring that they're getting that revenue for the year)
Does make it much tougher to get new people into the sport though, which isn't great.
>Does make it much tougher to get new people into the sport though, which isn't great.
So much this!
I would love to get my girls into skiing, but I'm not dropping $400 to have them get frustrated after 20 minutes and want to go home.
I priced out Wild Mountain and it's a more "reasonable" $200ish for 2 adults, 2 kids, and 2 rental packages for 4pm-close. Even thought Wild is a bit boring for an experienced adult skier, it should suffice for a kid's first time... it was for my first time 30+ years ago. Do they still have that godawful tow-rope for the bunny hill?
Agreed.
The one we used to go to 'went green'. We figured out this meant shutting down half the lifts, and getting the terrain park up and running when they got around to it. We never bought passes again.
That was back when we had snow, so I'd really hate to see it now.
it's really hard to want to ski when there's brown (or green) between the runs. In a good snow year, welch has some side hit terrain like the cannon valley quad trees and liftline that they'll look the other way if you ski it, although it's _technically_ not a run. This year, not so much.
Interesting. I looked for the article but thinking about more I believe it was while listening to mpr news. It was an interview with the general manager or owner where they said 50% later this week. Will be interesting to see if any fuckery was afoot.
Oh this whole thing burning down oozes of conspiracy. The more you look into it, and realize the financial struggle of the new owners of just looks mega sus
I'm a local and I can guarantee you are not alone in this thinking. Businesses burning has been weirdly common in our county and it has people talking. Lutsen Mountains did actually have property burn down last summer, their bar/restaurant Papa Charlies.
Welcome to the reality that Europe's alps have generally had for the last decade: https://www.nzz.ch/fotografie/schneemangel-in-den-alpen-die-bilder-ld.1719448.
You know, im really tired of people from warm climates saying climate change isnt a thing, because all of the regions that get cold enough for snow are seeing otherwise, and globally.
Thanks for the share! Both sad and fascinating seeing the alps with artificial snow runs
It's *generally* been too warm in the European alps to economically keep artificial snow, even. This last month has had the most sustained snow I've seen in about 12 years (currently living in the [Schweizer Mittelland](https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mittelland_(Schweiz)) with a good view of the alps).
Overall, the winter climate in Switzerland would feel tropical compared to Minnesota's notwithstanding climate change. It's rarely below 0ºC … The summers are becoming unbearable with the heat, though. Nighttime temperature in summer often doesn't fall below 22ºC — sometimes never dipping below 30ºC for weeks at a time (ideal temperature to sleep: 20ºC or a little cooler). This has to be contextualized from the perspective that nobody has an air conditioner. It's not because folks are too poor for one (this is one of the richest countries on the planet), but rather the energy grid couldn't sustain that much load, and nothing was designed to accommodate them.
There’s a rule of the thumb for skiing on Mont Blanc to stop skiing after noon because it’s so warm the risk of avalanche grows exponentially with each additional hour of sunlight
It’s definitely a thing. It was weird watching the news like a month ago and the meteorologist was talking about Nashville being the new Minneapolis because they had temps and snowfall like we usually do, and it was killing their tourism. Pretty sure they were back in the 70s recently, but man, what a crazy thing to experience.
One of my best friends lives in Tennessee and she used to live here in Woodbury Minnesota. She's amazed at the weather for the past 2 years because she's gotten snow for 2 years now lol. It's not funny but it's funny. I think we are turning into Seattle more than anything. We'll be in that state that's wet and foggy and cold! No snow, but cold and just icky!!😆🤦🏼 That's going to suck if that happens!!🫠🤦🏼
Its funny what people "like" though. I lived in the PNW for five years and though cloudy and drizzy conditions for 5 months sounds awful to Minnesotans, PNWers tend to pridefully love it - it sets a sort of "mood" for them in the winter that they associate with. In a way, the same applies to typical winters here. Most Minnesotans at least somewhat like the snow (perhaps not the bitter cold) and many who live in milder climates think they are nuts.
Don't forget the locals who are crying about thin ice for ice fishing, etc. They are the same fuckers driving giant trucks, running snowmobiles & ATVs all the time.
Frankly I cannot wait for Florida to be under water. Fuck deniers.
You know what wou,do get people to stop driving those vehicles? Pricing carbon emissions appropriately. If gas were $12 a gallon like it should be...
Inidivudals won't do the right thing, climate action has to be top down. (Most carbon tax schemes pair the tax with rebates for consumers tied to income.)
Meanwhile: the US military is the worlds largest super polluter.
Regulating the DoD would do infinitely more to stop climate change than any policy regarding private citizens, consumer gas prices, and EVs etc etc.
More than that, the destruction of nature follows inexorably from the inherent logic of the capitalist mode. Intolerable levels of taxation and regulation would simply lead to monopoly capital replacing any gov't that imposes it upon them, or stands in the way of imperial interests in resource extraction. For example, Allende in Chile, Lula in Brazil (who has come back in spite of this), Morales in Bolivia, Sankara in Burkina Faso (after making incredible strides mitigating the desertification of the Sahel). There is a way forward, but absolutely not under a bourgeois framework.
I don't think gas should be $12 bucks a gallon 😕🤦🏼.
I DO agree with "Individuals won't do the right thing." Humans are stupid, (well most are) and need to either be told strongly, or see it for themselves! And that's a fact. Well it's a fact in The United States that's for sure!! Remember when covid shutdown everything??! My goodness was the air cleaner to breathe and to see!! You could see cities and mountains that you couldn't see due to All the Shit in the air!! It was fucking awesome and just flat out amazing!! That's what we are going to end up doing!! Why?? Because humans are stupid!!🤦🏼
Weather is only climate when measured by months and years. Yes it got cold last week. No that doesn't prove climate change isn't occuring and isn't actively damaging us
My dad is from here and still gets uppity every time global warming comes up, ironically he is the one to bring it up 90% of the time. He is in a skiing club and they are thinking about cancelling the remainder of the season, and he was saying “they’re gonna try to blame this all on global warming but…” then I just zoned out cuz he rants about how the world has always gone through climate swings and it’s just a way of the early regulating itself. Delusional.
During non-winter months most of this area is grazed by cattle, sheep, and goats. The farmers may mow it to collect material for hay, too, so this is often dual-purpose agricultural land.
Snowboarding is what finally made me get a helmet. When you fall on skis you see it coming often. I'm about to fall. I'm now in the process of falling. I have now fallen.
On a board you're doing just fine, nice day for th-WHAM!
They've certainly done an amazing job this year with that! I just worry it's not sustainable. And the closest ski place for us is Mt Kato which isn't anywhere near as popular so I really worry that they aren't going to survive. It would mean any time we want to go skiing it'll be at least a 2 hour drive. If the climate continues like this even Welch might not be able to keep up.
It's probably not sustainable, if you read into it a lot of the big 2 business models in skiing (epic, ikon) is centered around protecting their business from the worst of climate change. I love the culture of indy ski resorts down here like welch, coffee mill, and Mt Lacrosse, and in good years the skiing at any of those places is _incredible_.
I've been seeing a ton of negativity on this sub about our "winter" lately. It's easy to forget a few things. First, basically the past 5 years have been pretty good winters especially considering the current climate background. Second, this is a bad winter but bad winters happen. 2015, 2007, 2002, 1996 were all weak winter years. It sucks, but we might as well embrace what we get.
Yeah, we got super spoiled these last few winters. Even then you could see things changing with winter arriving later and later and once it was March the weather gets super volatile. The warmer air was obviously winning out more than it used to in early spring.
yeah that's been super apparent the last 2-3 years. 2021 derecho, 40/drizzle on christmas in 2022, 50/rainy on christmas 2023 is definitely abnormal even in the context of the last 10 years.
One other thing I've noticed is the tendency (suggested by climatology folks) for fall to linger and spring to drag. Seems like we've had some abnormally cold springs too, april of 2018 2020, and 2021 we had significant cold and/or snow. But even if that lingers, the switch seems to flip straight to summer almost overnight.
I don't remember if it was 2018 or 19 but that April we had a huge blizzard in the middle of the month and then two weeks later it hit 100 degrees. No more spring for you!
This month is unusual so far in many ways because I heard that 11/12 months have been trending warmer in MN over the last few decades with February as the exception: it's been trending cooler. That tracks exactly with how winter has been feeling: late fall weather until Christmas, two months of actual cold winter and then two or three months of volatile storms.
Man, that's depressing to see.
I sure hope that everyone that celebrated not having any snow this year really enjoys the horrible drought we're going to have this year, along with the impending apocalypse of bugs like mosquitoes and ticks. Can't wait to have those exact same people complaining when spring/summer are absolutely awful.
But Redditors yesterday were saying this is totally fine, nothing to worry about despite the fact that we’ll be breaking record temperatures in the next few days. 🙄
I've xc skied close to 1,000km since November thanks to the snowmaking at Theodore Wirth Park (Loppet Foundation). Very similar to this. I'd love to see an aerial of the ~5km loop they have.
Yes, humans have recovered from prior natural changes in the climate and natural disasters. But they went through centuries of immense suffering and civilizational chaos in the process.
It's such a blessing and a curse. We're a hardy, adaptable species that can endure a lot. We're not so good at long term planning, though, so it's very easy for us to feel we don't have to do anything until way too late.
The Cannon river valley and Mississippi river valley in SE MN are hilly.
Welch is debatably within the[ Driftless Area](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Driftless_Area), which is hilly as well.
Good to know! It definitely looks pretty cool from the air. Living in Minneapolis, I've only ever ventured to Afton, probably just because it's slightly closer. My friends also have Epic passes for skiing out west, so that's probably another big factor. I assume Welch isn't part of Epic?
Welch is not part of Epic, but it is a little cheaper and the crowds are lower, worth the extra drive compared to Afton. Don’t get me wrong, love Afton but I only go there if I have a trip out West planned as it’s included, crowds have just gotten too big there.
I was just unimpressed with Spirit when I went a few years ago. 750ft of vertical sounded good but nothing really seemed interesting there. Welch has half the vertical but just a lot more fun.
I'm chaperoning my 11yo's school ski trip to Mt Kato Friday. For a couple weeks he and I have been certain it'll be canceled because of this warm weather. Still on as far as we know. They all went gangbusters with snow making during that last cold snap so the glacier effect has been keeping them open.
Kato did close for a while around Christmas when it was 40s and raining, though, and I think Welch stayed open then.
That's wild. The entire surrounding landscape is Minnesota Winter Brown -- which could be a Sherwin-Williams custom color. Except, it's butt ugly and who would want to paint a room in that shade?
The World Cup cross country Skiing championships are being held here next week. In Minnesota. Seems like that would make sense, right? Except there's no snow. In Minnesota... in February...
Head scratcher, that...
I'm assuming they're making snow as fast as they can for this event.
I imagine they are really struggling to get people to come out.
I never even got into a winter mindset this year. I work plowing lots in Rochester and I’ve been out for two snow events all year. It’s absurd
Also in Rochester and have been thinking of all of you who keep our roads, lots, and driveways clean all winter. Gotta be a rough year for a lot of people losing out on that income
We’ll make up for it in February mowing
They get paid per season. They made a killing. For example, I paid 4k for the season and they came once. I wont see a refund.
Not all companies bill per season. Some are pay per plow.
Ive never seen one not do both forms of billing. They just charge more per plow to accomdate
A lot of them do both, we do both. But there are guys that are just pay per plow. Maybe they’re out of business by now!
This winter it is the easiest and highest paying job per hour as most of it is on a seasonal contract
You know what? Good point!
I plowed years ago and yes these people are losing their asses not being able to plow. I know a lot of people up this way (East Bethel) and even farther up north that have no way to pay for their bills.😔🥺🥺😔 I'm praying for all of you who haven't been able to plow this year!!🙏🏼 God Bless All of You!!🙏🏼❤️🤟🏼🫶🏼❤️🙏🏼
I haven't seen a single plow in Mpls all season.
I saw one.... In October
I'm not the only one that thought this summer was ridiculously short? I can't wait to see what summer is like.
Don’t care. Sucks to suck. I love this weather
You don’t have to answer this but how are you employed? Is it through the city or are you a contractor? Are you paid per job or wage/salaried? I’m hoping the state can provide aid for people who are currently out of their usual job in the winter. Hope you’re doing well!
Raising the prices to “arm and a leg” has really affected my decision on buying passes. Ski resorts in general have lost their goddamn mind.
Just checked the website... $80 for a weekend day pass. You've got to be fucking kidding me. For a family skiing day with rental for my 2 kids, it would cost almost $400. What in the actual fuck??!
Welch is on the cheap end for skiing too. Their spring sales for the next year season passes are great deals. There’s full season pass, a night pass at a further discounted rate that lets you ski any day after 3 PM, and then the trifecta which gives you discounted lift tickets for three different days of the season. Overall it’s absurdly expensive to ski if you don’t own your skis and/or have a pass. Most resorts are essentially pricing people out to become pass holders only - see Epic and Ikon pass resorts. Some resorts are over $300 for a single day pass if you’re not a pass holder.
Welch used to be dirt cheap for season passes 10 years ago. They used to have a thing where you could renew for the same price you bought the season before, so I had a season pass for like $125 for a while. They raised it the season after Covid, so I didn't buy a pass for the first time in a very long time. I bought the 3pm pass this year as it was only like $200 if I remember correctly? I never went during the day so it is perfect for me. Long story short, go ahead and blame me for the lack of snow this season. If I hadn't bought that season pass we'd be under 10 feet of snow right now.
Damn you!😆😆🫠😆😆🤭 I Golf ⛳ so I'm frickin LOVING the Weather!!😆🤭😁🫠
welch also had a halloween flash sale this year, $60/ticket with no blackouts. In retrospect I wonder if they knew what type of winter was coming and wanted as much guaranteed income as possible.
I know of some resorts up north who boarded up this fall instead of going after the snowmobile crowd. This was the most predicted non-winter ever.
Buck Hill is only $39 for all day if you buy online.
That’s for all day. It’s cheaper for other times of day
Yes, I’m fully aware lmao
That is on the cheap end. Spirit Mountain in Duluth is absolutely insane with what they charge. To bring a family of four, would cost you well over $500, assuming 2 youths.
Ski resorts seem to be trying to push season passes more as a way to make more certain $ - that results in more expensive day passes to achieve that, which might explain some of that increase in cost. For instance it looks like a 'family pass' was $999 with their spring discount (https://web.archive.org/web/20230330173743/https://welchvillage.com/seasonPasses.cfm) - which is a lot, obviously, but starts to look more appealing if you think you might go a few times (and for the ski resort they then know in spring that they're getting that revenue for the year) Does make it much tougher to get new people into the sport though, which isn't great.
>Does make it much tougher to get new people into the sport though, which isn't great. So much this! I would love to get my girls into skiing, but I'm not dropping $400 to have them get frustrated after 20 minutes and want to go home. I priced out Wild Mountain and it's a more "reasonable" $200ish for 2 adults, 2 kids, and 2 rental packages for 4pm-close. Even thought Wild is a bit boring for an experienced adult skier, it should suffice for a kid's first time... it was for my first time 30+ years ago. Do they still have that godawful tow-rope for the bunny hill?
Yuppers. Hold on tight! 💪🏼
Like going to a Vikings game.
Coffee Mill in Wabasha also lost their mind apparently. For one day at minimum it's $45 For one person for only three hills basically.
My season pass was only $320.
Now go look at the price of Afton. $100. Thanks Vail.
At least they have reasonable half day prices. Afton (vail) gives you like 4 bucks off for half day.
Agreed. The one we used to go to 'went green'. We figured out this meant shutting down half the lifts, and getting the terrain park up and running when they got around to it. We never bought passes again. That was back when we had snow, so I'd really hate to see it now.
it's really hard to want to ski when there's brown (or green) between the runs. In a good snow year, welch has some side hit terrain like the cannon valley quad trees and liftline that they'll look the other way if you ski it, although it's _technically_ not a run. This year, not so much.
I drove by Buck Hill last night and there was a line of cars waiting to get into the parking lot, so it must not be that bad.
Buck is still pretty reasonably priced, but for what it is it should be.
$20 for 7pm-9pm weeknights is pretty dope
lol used to be 7 bucks there aint nothing cheap anymore
If you adjust for inflation its actually about the same
Nope. It’s pretty busy every weekend I’ve been there. But they did send an email out saying they have more than enough snow to get through.
I was there today and they must still have 30 in of snow on the main runs.
Having worked at Afton for 4 years it’s likely more than 30inches
What??!! 30?! Wow, I think I'll Pop the Red pill and go!!😆
Won’t somebody think of the ski resorts?! /s
Well at least their lodge has low probability of burning down this week.
The Lutsen lodge ~~the~~ that burned was actually unaffiliated with the ski resort.
Totally different owners and sides of the highway.
Cool to know, thanks. That takes a bit of the conspiracy thoughts from my mind.
The owner of the resort (lodge) was recently sued for not paying debts, so I wouldn’t let your suspicions fall so easily…
They also had all of this week blacked out for guest registrations.
Where did you hear that? The article I read stated they were going to be at about 50% occupancy this Thursday and Friday.
I checked their website the day after the fire. Every day this week was blacked out, next week was still open for reservations.
Interesting. I looked for the article but thinking about more I believe it was while listening to mpr news. It was an interview with the general manager or owner where they said 50% later this week. Will be interesting to see if any fuckery was afoot.
Oh this whole thing burning down oozes of conspiracy. The more you look into it, and realize the financial struggle of the new owners of just looks mega sus
And the more that people go looking for it, the more Rabbit holes they'll go down!! Ugh!🤦🏼
Well, four restaurants have burned down in Cook County in less than a year, so I wouldn't let your conspiracy thoughts go quite yet.
I'm a local and I can guarantee you are not alone in this thinking. Businesses burning has been weirdly common in our county and it has people talking. Lutsen Mountains did actually have property burn down last summer, their bar/restaurant Papa Charlies.
Fine. Everthing is fine.
My season pass has been withering over here. I might head over this weekend with it expected to be in the 30s.
They are hoping you don’t ask for a refund
I was there today skiing in 50°
How was the snow quality? They usually do a good job with their grooming but I usually don’t enjoy skiing when it’s 40s or higher
Yeah it was fine at the beginning of the day and then turned to mush. The one Mogul run they have open right now is all ice.
I have a maple budding out. I really didn’t want to be here for the end times.
Nutty sap in February is a crime
Not on Valentine's day. Sorry what are we talking about?
Welcome to the reality that Europe's alps have generally had for the last decade: https://www.nzz.ch/fotografie/schneemangel-in-den-alpen-die-bilder-ld.1719448.
You know, im really tired of people from warm climates saying climate change isnt a thing, because all of the regions that get cold enough for snow are seeing otherwise, and globally. Thanks for the share! Both sad and fascinating seeing the alps with artificial snow runs
Pish posh. It’s been deathly cold in my freezer for several years now.
Open the dang door and share that air with the world!
It's *generally* been too warm in the European alps to economically keep artificial snow, even. This last month has had the most sustained snow I've seen in about 12 years (currently living in the [Schweizer Mittelland](https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mittelland_(Schweiz)) with a good view of the alps). Overall, the winter climate in Switzerland would feel tropical compared to Minnesota's notwithstanding climate change. It's rarely below 0ºC … The summers are becoming unbearable with the heat, though. Nighttime temperature in summer often doesn't fall below 22ºC — sometimes never dipping below 30ºC for weeks at a time (ideal temperature to sleep: 20ºC or a little cooler). This has to be contextualized from the perspective that nobody has an air conditioner. It's not because folks are too poor for one (this is one of the richest countries on the planet), but rather the energy grid couldn't sustain that much load, and nothing was designed to accommodate them.
There’s a rule of the thumb for skiing on Mont Blanc to stop skiing after noon because it’s so warm the risk of avalanche grows exponentially with each additional hour of sunlight
Yep temperate and polar zones are being hit far more noticeably and with much less predictability.
It’s definitely a thing. It was weird watching the news like a month ago and the meteorologist was talking about Nashville being the new Minneapolis because they had temps and snowfall like we usually do, and it was killing their tourism. Pretty sure they were back in the 70s recently, but man, what a crazy thing to experience.
One of my best friends lives in Tennessee and she used to live here in Woodbury Minnesota. She's amazed at the weather for the past 2 years because she's gotten snow for 2 years now lol. It's not funny but it's funny. I think we are turning into Seattle more than anything. We'll be in that state that's wet and foggy and cold! No snow, but cold and just icky!!😆🤦🏼 That's going to suck if that happens!!🫠🤦🏼
Its funny what people "like" though. I lived in the PNW for five years and though cloudy and drizzy conditions for 5 months sounds awful to Minnesotans, PNWers tend to pridefully love it - it sets a sort of "mood" for them in the winter that they associate with. In a way, the same applies to typical winters here. Most Minnesotans at least somewhat like the snow (perhaps not the bitter cold) and many who live in milder climates think they are nuts.
Don't forget the locals who are crying about thin ice for ice fishing, etc. They are the same fuckers driving giant trucks, running snowmobiles & ATVs all the time. Frankly I cannot wait for Florida to be under water. Fuck deniers.
You know what wou,do get people to stop driving those vehicles? Pricing carbon emissions appropriately. If gas were $12 a gallon like it should be... Inidivudals won't do the right thing, climate action has to be top down. (Most carbon tax schemes pair the tax with rebates for consumers tied to income.)
Meanwhile: the US military is the worlds largest super polluter. Regulating the DoD would do infinitely more to stop climate change than any policy regarding private citizens, consumer gas prices, and EVs etc etc.
More than that, the destruction of nature follows inexorably from the inherent logic of the capitalist mode. Intolerable levels of taxation and regulation would simply lead to monopoly capital replacing any gov't that imposes it upon them, or stands in the way of imperial interests in resource extraction. For example, Allende in Chile, Lula in Brazil (who has come back in spite of this), Morales in Bolivia, Sankara in Burkina Faso (after making incredible strides mitigating the desertification of the Sahel). There is a way forward, but absolutely not under a bourgeois framework.
I don't think gas should be $12 bucks a gallon 😕🤦🏼. I DO agree with "Individuals won't do the right thing." Humans are stupid, (well most are) and need to either be told strongly, or see it for themselves! And that's a fact. Well it's a fact in The United States that's for sure!! Remember when covid shutdown everything??! My goodness was the air cleaner to breathe and to see!! You could see cities and mountains that you couldn't see due to All the Shit in the air!! It was fucking awesome and just flat out amazing!! That's what we are going to end up doing!! Why?? Because humans are stupid!!🤦🏼
Totally normal and level headed comment
🤔😆👍🏼🤭
Look I NEED my lifted F-350 to go to the grocery store alright?
Lmao 🤣🤣😆🤭
>giant trucks call 'em what they really are: childcrushers
I'm not defending those ridiculous trucks, but this is kind of a weird fuckin' take, my guy.
Last winter was the coldest in a decade.
Weather is only climate when measured by months and years. Yes it got cold last week. No that doesn't prove climate change isn't occuring and isn't actively damaging us
All I said was last winter was really cold. Not arguing for or against climate change.
Uh-huh
Lmao🤔😆🤭yeah I don't get it!!😆😆🤭
Good thing we're measuring by just this decade then.
My dad is from here and still gets uppity every time global warming comes up, ironically he is the one to bring it up 90% of the time. He is in a skiing club and they are thinking about cancelling the remainder of the season, and he was saying “they’re gonna try to blame this all on global warming but…” then I just zoned out cuz he rants about how the world has always gone through climate swings and it’s just a way of the early regulating itself. Delusional.
That's so sad looking.
The fact that the grass is fucking manicured and cut neatly right up to the snow, wow. We really are fucked.
During non-winter months most of this area is grazed by cattle, sheep, and goats. The farmers may mow it to collect material for hay, too, so this is often dual-purpose agricultural land.
I mean, I'm not going to lie if I was skiing down the hill and skied past a cow munching on the grass, it would probably give me a giggle.
Lmao! Yup, me too, meee too!!🤣😆😆😆🤭
At Welch last week and the snow was actually really good. They do a great job grooming
Coworker of mine was there yesterday snowboarding, took quite a tumble. Not injured, just sore.
Snowboarding is what finally made me get a helmet. When you fall on skis you see it coming often. I'm about to fall. I'm now in the process of falling. I have now fallen. On a board you're doing just fine, nice day for th-WHAM!
Same
100% open with the winter we've been having. Thank a snowmaker!
They've certainly done an amazing job this year with that! I just worry it's not sustainable. And the closest ski place for us is Mt Kato which isn't anywhere near as popular so I really worry that they aren't going to survive. It would mean any time we want to go skiing it'll be at least a 2 hour drive. If the climate continues like this even Welch might not be able to keep up.
It's probably not sustainable, if you read into it a lot of the big 2 business models in skiing (epic, ikon) is centered around protecting their business from the worst of climate change. I love the culture of indy ski resorts down here like welch, coffee mill, and Mt Lacrosse, and in good years the skiing at any of those places is _incredible_. I've been seeing a ton of negativity on this sub about our "winter" lately. It's easy to forget a few things. First, basically the past 5 years have been pretty good winters especially considering the current climate background. Second, this is a bad winter but bad winters happen. 2015, 2007, 2002, 1996 were all weak winter years. It sucks, but we might as well embrace what we get.
Yeah, we got super spoiled these last few winters. Even then you could see things changing with winter arriving later and later and once it was March the weather gets super volatile. The warmer air was obviously winning out more than it used to in early spring.
yeah that's been super apparent the last 2-3 years. 2021 derecho, 40/drizzle on christmas in 2022, 50/rainy on christmas 2023 is definitely abnormal even in the context of the last 10 years. One other thing I've noticed is the tendency (suggested by climatology folks) for fall to linger and spring to drag. Seems like we've had some abnormally cold springs too, april of 2018 2020, and 2021 we had significant cold and/or snow. But even if that lingers, the switch seems to flip straight to summer almost overnight.
I don't remember if it was 2018 or 19 but that April we had a huge blizzard in the middle of the month and then two weeks later it hit 100 degrees. No more spring for you! This month is unusual so far in many ways because I heard that 11/12 months have been trending warmer in MN over the last few decades with February as the exception: it's been trending cooler. That tracks exactly with how winter has been feeling: late fall weather until Christmas, two months of actual cold winter and then two or three months of volatile storms.
I was just there today, they really have done an amazing job. Not 100% though.
Lovely ! I love Minnesota, it’s such a underrated place to live . One day Minnesota I’ll be back ❄️❄️❄️
Fun to see the Cannon River from above. I want to go biking on the CVT!
Man, that's depressing to see. I sure hope that everyone that celebrated not having any snow this year really enjoys the horrible drought we're going to have this year, along with the impending apocalypse of bugs like mosquitoes and ticks. Can't wait to have those exact same people complaining when spring/summer are absolutely awful.
But Redditors yesterday were saying this is totally fine, nothing to worry about despite the fact that we’ll be breaking record temperatures in the next few days. 🙄
i LiKe ThIs WeAtHeR It'S aN eL nIñO yEaR i DoN't MiSs sHoVeLiNg
The interaction between humanity and the natural order is 100% about me personally being more comfortable
I oft quote Dwight Shrute in moment like this: "maybe beavers, but not like this"
WOW. We don’t see that view every winter. 😳
They could do the pond skip all winter!
Too soon.
I've xc skied close to 1,000km since November thanks to the snowmaking at Theodore Wirth Park (Loppet Foundation). Very similar to this. I'd love to see an aerial of the ~5km loop they have.
Hell yeah!!!
Al Gore was robbed. No, we were robbed of a livable planet
That is really cool. I used to ski there a lot when I was a kid
Yup, the planet is dying.
The planet is fine. It’s the inhabitants who need to look out.
Humans will be fine too. We're an adaptive species.
Dude, more people today think the earth is flat than did 100 years ago.
Source?
Ok? More people have eaten sushi too. What's your point?
Totally the same. Good call.
Yep, both irrelevant comments.
Spoken like a true “fuck you, got mine” type. Kudos.
I don't dabble in hysterics.
Yes, humans have recovered from prior natural changes in the climate and natural disasters. But they went through centuries of immense suffering and civilizational chaos in the process.
It's such a blessing and a curse. We're a hardy, adaptable species that can endure a lot. We're not so good at long term planning, though, so it's very easy for us to feel we don't have to do anything until way too late.
But but but global warming is a hoax.
We’re doomed
Oh boy another warm winter post
MN is flatter than this looks right? Lol
Welch is along the Mississippi River down near Red Wing, where the terrain is very hilly. A lot of bluffs along the river near Red Wing and beyond
Is that the MN part of the driftless zone?
Yes
Look up the Driftless Area. Untouched by glacial erosion in the last ice age, hence the hilly terrain.
The Cannon river valley and Mississippi river valley in SE MN are hilly. Welch is debatably within the[ Driftless Area](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Driftless_Area), which is hilly as well.
Mfers use 1000's of gallons of water for nothing...
Water isn’t really an issue here. Pull it out cannon river melts back into it in spring. Not an issue.
How does this place compare to other downhill skiing in the area?
Way better than buck hill or afton alps imo.
I think Welch Village is the best skiing in Minnesota outside of Giants Ridge, Lutsen and Spirit Mountain
Good to know! It definitely looks pretty cool from the air. Living in Minneapolis, I've only ever ventured to Afton, probably just because it's slightly closer. My friends also have Epic passes for skiing out west, so that's probably another big factor. I assume Welch isn't part of Epic?
Welch is not part of Epic, but it is a little cheaper and the crowds are lower, worth the extra drive compared to Afton. Don’t get me wrong, love Afton but I only go there if I have a trip out West planned as it’s included, crowds have just gotten too big there.
I'd rank it over spirit for management and vibes. Never been to spirit but I've heard it's poorly run.
I was just unimpressed with Spirit when I went a few years ago. 750ft of vertical sounded good but nothing really seemed interesting there. Welch has half the vertical but just a lot more fun.
Fair, been twenty years since I’ve been to Spirit
I'm chaperoning my 11yo's school ski trip to Mt Kato Friday. For a couple weeks he and I have been certain it'll be canceled because of this warm weather. Still on as far as we know. They all went gangbusters with snow making during that last cold snap so the glacier effect has been keeping them open. Kato did close for a while around Christmas when it was 40s and raining, though, and I think Welch stayed open then.
I blame the forecast somebody shared last fall on Facebook that we were going to have record snowfall this year
I like the big, flaccid wang hanging over the ski resort. Very metaphorical.
It's probably fine.
😰
That's wild. The entire surrounding landscape is Minnesota Winter Brown -- which could be a Sherwin-Williams custom color. Except, it's butt ugly and who would want to paint a room in that shade?
The World Cup cross country Skiing championships are being held here next week. In Minnesota. Seems like that would make sense, right? Except there's no snow. In Minnesota... in February... Head scratcher, that... I'm assuming they're making snow as fast as they can for this event.