Mont Ripley opens for season

HANCOCK — Winter doesn’t officially begin for a few more days, but there’s plenty of snow in the Keweenaw and it looks like it’s here to stay. Residents are wasting no time getting out and enjoying their favorite winter sports.

The trails are open for sledding, the lakes are frozen for fishing and the slopes are covered with snow for skiing and snow boarding here in the Keweenaw.

“We still got our snow guns going. We’re opening more terrain every day now. And the snow is perfect. We’re getting a nice little gloss about every day of a couple inches or so and it’s just a perfect combination,” said Operations Manager Kevin McClellan.

Mont Ripley started making snow about four weeks ago and has opened a few of the slopes for the past couple of weekends as they’ve continued producing snow, but Monday officially kicks off the ski season as the resort is now open everyday. Slopes range from beginner to expert level and lessons are available for those who are new to the sport.

“We’re investing in our future skiers. It’s an excellent program we have a bunch of really good instructors that have been through some special high intensity training,” said McClellan.

An MTU owned operation, Mont Ripley offers skiers, and snow boarders a place to get out and play in the snow, and tubers will get to join the party this weekend when the facility opens up its four lane tubing park.

“We’ll probably be, next weekend I’m guessing, about 50 to 60 percent open. So, that’s a lot of terrain. We’ve got over a hundred acres to play on here so come on out,” said McClellan.

For information on lessons, Christmas Ski School and upcoming events, click HERE.