Photo: Kristian Saile
ANDREW FARRON, THE brand new general manager at Marquette Mountain, is facing his first major challenge this weekend.
Young skiers from all over the Midwest–400 to 500 of them–are descending on the Mountain for the Bob Hosking Memorial races from Friday through Sunday. It’ll be one of the biggest race weekends here in the last several years.
In addition, the junior skiers are bringing their families, so expect 1200-1500 people to pack the mountain, and of course, Marquette, as well.
“The lodge is going to be overloaded, we’re going to run out of parking spaces, and we’ll be closing down some of the runs for the races,” Farron says. “But I hope our local skiers and snowboarders show some patience with us.”
Farron expresses ambivalence about it because he, himself, identifies with the local skiers and snowboarders who may feel squeezed out.
“But we have to understand, this event is important to the Mountain,” he says. “The money it brings in helps keep our ticket prices low and helps maintain the Mountain year round.”
And then there’s the bigger picture: Marquette’s hotels, restaurants, and shops will benefit from the massive influx of tourists for the three days, at a time when it’s otherwise slow and sleepy.
Fortunately, there’s plenty of snow on the mountain but that’s presented a problem for Kristian Saile, the mountain operations manager.
“The challenge is getting the snow hard enough,” he says. The groomers pack down the snow, but then fresh new snow keeps arriving. “It’s been a strange winter. We’ve been praying for snow and cursing it.”
Still, it’s better to have too much snow than not enough.
And it’s better to have the mountain packed rather than empty.
One more thing–a suggestion from Saile for the local skiers and snowboarders this weekend: Come to the Mountain after 4:30. The racers and their families will be gone by then, the parking lots will open up, and the mountain will have quieted down, ready to welcome the locals back.
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