COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) -- Among worldwide destinations for elite skiing, few people would add Ohio to that list. However, skiing in the Buckeye State remains a popular activity.
"It seems like the colder it is with the (snow) guns on, the warmer your heart gets and the more excitement you get because it's the best time of year for us," Al Fiel, general manager of Mad River Mountain near Bellefontaine, said.
Five ski resorts operate in Ohio, with Mad River and Snow Trails closest to the Columbus area. Attendance has been relatively strong, especially since the 2020 pandemic season, but at the same time, Ohio skiing has faced an uphill battle: the weather.
"It's like almost having a silent partner with Mother Nature, and with that silent partner, sometimes they cooperate and other times they don't,” Fiel said.
Last Thursday, Snow Trails in Mansfield opened its slopes thanks to some frigid temperatures, even without much natural snowfall.
"There's nothing fake about it,” Snow Trails Marketing Manager Nate Wollesky said. “It's just compressed air and water and putting that into the atmosphere at the right temperatures and then it will freeze into a snowflake. So that really is the key for us."
Conditions at Mad River are trending well, with the resort planning to open this Friday afternoon. But natural snowfall is on a tenuous trend.
"We've had years like 2015, 2016, where our first actual Mother Nature snow didn't come until January of that year, which is incredible,” Storm Team 4 Chief Meteorologist Dave Mazza said. "It means they have to make snow all the way until the middle of January to make up for what Mother Nature didn't provide."
Storm Team 4 analyzed temperature and snowfall data in the Columbus area for the past decade, and that trend suggests a warming climate leading to warmer winter temperatures and less snow.
"On top of that, we've had abnormally warm Novembers and Decembers that make it very difficult to make snow around the clock, so they might get a few moments overnight where the temperatures drop below but if you're only making snow for an hour, that's not really efficient," Mazza said.
The typical Ohio ski season runs about 90 days, from the second week in December until St. Patrick's Day in March. That compressed window means operators have to maximize every day.
"It's about being efficient, not only with our time and our people and our resources but also we as a company know that we need to be good stewards of the environment and that impacts everything from our outdoor operations to our indoor operations because we depend on the environment so much,” Fiel said. “It is a window, and you have to take advantage of everything you can.”
Operators remain optimistic about the business, but to keep lifts busy, the resorts still rely on Mother Nature as a motivator.
"We can make a lot of snow and even get natural snow, which is something that gets everyone really excited," Wollesky said.
"And when that happens and you get the snow flurries on the ground, everyone thinks of us,” Fiel said. "And it's a great thing.”
