Minnesota Ski Area Reopening Next Month Thanks To Preserved Snow
On March 22, Hyland Hills, Minnesota, finished out its ski season, serving up one last slushy offering before next fall, but it wasn’t quite the end.
Next month, skiers will return to Hyland Hills and, despite the blooming flowers, ski on real snow again. That’s all thanks to the June Jam, a spring gathering on June 10 made possible with preserved snow stored with hay and tarps.
This year, the event’s set to be larger, with a tubing lane and rope-tow access for the skiers and snowboarders, who will cruise down a rail and jib-feature-studded slope.
The entrance fee for each three-hour session is $20. But spectating, which is half the fun, is free and encouraged. The ski area also plans to host a happy hour on its patio with food, drinks, and live music.
The event will join a few similar offerings across the Midwest and Northeast.
Jay Peak, Vermont, has started hosting the Solstice Sessions in recent years, combining concert performances with summer skiing. At Trollhaugen, Wisconsin, there’s the longstanding Open Haugen, a fall festival that includes a rail jam. Tyrol Basin, also in Wisconsin, has its own rail jam on June 6.
Each event mirrors snow storage efforts found in Europe, albeit on a smaller scale. Levi, Finland, famously squirrels away huge quantities of snow that allow it to offer a “7-month snow guarantee.” Every season, the resort is one of the first to beopen in the northern hemisphere with complete, lift-served runs after unwrapping the hulking piles.
Beyond the upcoming one-off rail jams, the ski season is careening toward a somewhat early end in North America. Regular late-season contenders, like Palisades Tahoe, California, and Arapahoe Basin, Colorado, have already called it quits after a challenging and often warm winter. Killington, Vermont, sent off the season on Memorial Day.
Still, a few resorts are kicking.
Mammoth Mountain is aiming for June 7. Timberline Lodge, Oregon, as usual, will keep the season going into summer. Beartooth Basin, Wyoming, the continent’s lone summer-only ski area, just opened. And after a memorably snowy season, Sunshine Village, Alberta, plans to reopen on June 20 for another 16 days of skiing and snowboarding.
Related: I Moved Away From the Mountains, But My Ski Dreams Won’t Let Me Go
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