OTSEGO, Mich. — The ski and snowboard season might be a little closer than you think. Bittersweet in Otsego said it plans to open for the season in limited fashion on Wednesday. Cannonsburg, in Kent County, is still eyeing a start date closer to Christmas.
“As soon as we get snow on the ground, this place is completely different," said Nick Ross, Bittersweet's General Manager. "Just turns into a winter wonderland. Turns into a whole new atmosphere.”
About 80 skiable acres at Bittersweet will soon be exactly that— skiable.
Ross expects to have about three or four runs open on Wednesday, despite the relative absence of winter weather.
“Michigan weather has been crazy the past couple of years," he said, "But, we gotta go every opportunity we get.”
Ross said they only need about a six-to-ten inch base to open, but they can't always rely on a blizzard to get there.
He said temperatures need to stay at-or-below 28 degrees to run the guns.
Each of the Bittersweet snow blowers turns about 16 gallons of water into snow every minutes. Multiply that by their 150 snow blowers, running on a full 24-hour cycle, and that's just under 3.5 million gallons of water a day to cover the entire resort.
At Cannonsburg, there are about 40 snow blowers that can blast a little more than 2 million gallons in a 24-hour window. However, they haven't been able to do that yet because it's been warmer than preferred.
In fact, when FOX 17 when to Cannonsburg on Tuesday, that was the first time they've been able to run the snow blowers in the day this season.
“The extended forecast, when it looks to be in the 30s and 40s, that's always disappointing, but what we're doing is just taking advantage of the colder temps while we have them," said Danielle Musto, Cannonsburg's Marketing Director.
Musto said Cannonsburg prefers a snowpack of several feet, which means opening around Christmas is more realistic.
“For us, it's always our biggest hope," Musto explained, "because that's when, you know, parents take time off, and families, you know, the kids are off of school and they can just spend whole days out here, making memories, skiing, snowboarding, tubing — it's always so much fun.”
Even if Bittersweet does open Wednesday, there's no guarantee it'll stay open.
Ross said, “We're going to stay open as long as we can, but as soon as we feel that start to get unsafe, we'll close the doors and we'll wait for the next cold snap. We'll be right open within a matter of, you know, a day or two.”
Two different resorts. Two different plans. One shared mindset.
"I mean, if Mother Nature wants to give us a blizzard, we’ll take it," Musto said.
Although the slopes at Cannonsburg are still about a month away from opening, Musto mentioned several preseason attractions you can check out in the meantime.
The Winter Wonderland Forest opens this Friday, December 1, and runs every Friday and Saturday for the first three weekends of the month. General admission is $10, while kids two-and-under are free.
Then, on December 9, Cannonsburg is teaming up with the Humane Society of West Michigan for Humane Hustle 2023, a 5K and one-mile fun run.
