The winter blues

Students still waiting to make use of their season passes

By Chase Christensen

For some students, the $335 cost of a season pass at Beaver Mountain was a small price to pay to ski or snowboard all winter long, according to Jordon Olson, a marketing major at Utah State University and season pass holder. Many students even elected to schedule it as a class in order to take advantage of USU’s close vicinity to such winter venues, he said. But no matter the reason for visiting Beaver Mountain these students share a similar fate, one were snowfall has yet to exceed the requisite level to open the resort.

Beaver Mountain remains closed due to the lack of precipitation and that has some students anxiously awaiting snowfall.

“It sucks just having to wait around,” Olson said. “It better be open by the time finals week is over that is what I was planning on doing all of break. I just feel like I’m getting screwed out of time I could be riding, and it’s not like I can get my money back.”

But others maintain that Beaver has regularly opened for its season later than other Utah resorts.

“It usually doesn’t open till mid-December from what I’ve ever seen,” said Nate Lowe, a student and ski instructor at Beaver. “The earliest I’ve ever seen it open was on Dec. 3 and that was that crazy good winter two years ago.”

Even with the knowledge of later openings at Beaver students are still aware of the cost they incurred and are anxious to utilize their passes.

“I understand that they really don’t have much control of how much it snows,” said Brock Neagle, a season pass holder. “But it’s hard not to feel like you aren’t losing money while you are just sitting around waiting for snow.”

But Lowe said that a lot of students are used to the higher end resorts that are available in Utah, many that possess artificial snow making equipment.

“Yeah it sucks but what can you do?” Lowe said. “The Salt Lake resorts make their own snow that’s why they can guarantee an opening date, even though early season down there sucks anyway.”

Lowe added that he once asked the owner, Ted Seeholzer, if Beaver would ever have artificial snow making equipment. He was told that the possibility had been looked into but that there was not a large enough ground water supply to feed the wells required to sustain the machinery.

“I guess at smaller scale resorts like Beaver you are kind of at the mercy of the weather, maybe praying to the snow gods will help a little bit,” Neagle said.