Skiing Season Begins For Real In Tri-State Area
VERNON, N.J. (CBSNewYork) -- Even though we do not yet have a lot of snow in our area, that is not stopping people from getting out and skiing.
CBS2's Meg Baker spent part of the day Wednesday checking out the conditions at Mountain Creek Resort.
Man-made snow is the order of the day right now at many mountains in our area as we have yet to really get hit with a serious snow-producing storm, but that didn't stop people from making the trek to Vernon for some fun on the slopes.
"Last year when I came it was snowing, so it was better. It's very icy today. I've heard a lot of people say that," one young skier said. "There's not that much powder. It's really icy."
"I'm actually sweating a little bit," a woman added. "It's really nice. The snow is nice and soft, so I am happy we came out today."
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CBS2's Baker also spoke to Hugh Reynolds, Mountain Creek's VP of marketing and sales. He said he expects the conditions to improve in the coming days and weeks.
"We rely on the ability to make snow here," Reynolds said. "We get about 65 inches of natural snowfall a year, which is great when it comes, but sometimes we have to give Mother Nature a little helping hand.
"We have 14 trails open currently, probably 75 acres of skiable terrain," Reynolds added. "We will go through 200 million gallons of water in the winter making snow. We have already gone about 40 million gallons for snow making, so we're less than halfway through our snow making for the year."
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Mountain Creek officials said there were about 4,000 people at the resort on Wednesday and hope that number will jump to about 7,000 by the end of the week, adding the week between Christmas and New Year's is one of their biggest.
