Campgaw Mountain welcomes weekend snowstorms
MAHWAH, N.J. (PIX11) -- The forecast for this weekend calls for snow that could pile up to six inches or more in locations north and northwest of the city.
Campgaw Mountain ski slope is such a location, and while its operators say they are looking forward to the snow piling up, it can also come with a few concerns.
On Thursday evening, more than a dozen snow-making machines, called snow guns, were turned on full blast on most of the seven slopes at the Campgaw resort.
Its C.E.O., Joe Fox, explained that different slopes need different levels of snow base, ranging from one to four feet deep, to operate. The snow guns were providing the base, on top of which the forecasted snow this weekend should fall.
That could result in a payoff, Fox said.
"When people see snow, then they get really active, and our phones are flooded, and they come out. The best advertising there is natural snow."
However, he said, natural snow is not necessarily the best ski and snow tubing surface. He added it can make snow tubing slopes slower to descend.
Fox said that Campgaw will most likely use a snow-spreading machine to mix its machine-made and natural snow.
However, low temperatures and a significant wind chill are creating conditions that will keep the machine-made snow amenable to base-building, for use by snowboarders, skiers, and snow tube riders.
Ralph Rodriguez, a Floridian who had brought his family from Miami to visit his sister in Somerville, NJ, came by Campgaw on Thursday afternoon to see what the snow situation was like.
The slopes were closed on Thursday, but he said that the storm was likely to prompt his return.
"Hopefully, we can come back on the weekend," he said.
While this weekend's predicted weather conditions are likely to promote a robust ski season throughout the winter, they could be hazardous in the near term.
Even in a place like Campgaw, which is all about snowfall, it ends up dealing with some of the same concerns as everyone else when heavy snow is falling.
"Travel conditions," said Fox. "Sometimes it makes it difficult to get here. Someone will buy tickets, and then they can't come."
He said that that was also the case for many of the people on the staff of Campgaw Mountain.
"We have a lot of young people that work here," Fox explained, "and they haven't been driving that long." Driving in a snowstorm, he added, can be a safety challenge.
His ski slope is the closest one to New York City, but despite the relatively close distance, Fox said, the best time to go to any of the half dozen ski resorts within 40 miles of the city is "the day after the storm."
He also advised people to pay close attention to weather forecasts and to check ski slope websites, like his, for the latest information on closures and conditions.