Ellicottville, N.Y. (WBEN) - Despite significant lake effect snow falling this week, one local ski resort is not quite ready to start the season this winter.
"We were hoping to open today, and it would have been fantastic to open with what looks like about foot of fresh snow that we got overnight," said Dash Hegeman of Holiday Valley in Ellicottville in Cattaraugus County.
Hegeman says the weather didn't cooperate in the weeks leading up, so he's had to delay opening day, with the hopes of opening next week.
Hegeman says cold weather is vital to an effective snow base.
"That at least allows for consistency and allows for our snow making team to blanket all of the slopes with snow, and anything that Mother Nature provides is icing on the cake," Hegeman said.
He says crews can quickly get snow on the ground with cold weather.
"We've invested in a fantastic automated system, and so once the weather gets cold and the temperatures are below freezing, and ideally, the humidity level is pretty low, that team can get out there and make a lot of snow in a short amount of time," Hegeman explained.
Hegeman hopes for similar success from last year.
"We received about 180 inches of natural snow as forecast, and once December hit, it just got cold, and stayed cold through pretty much March, so the snow making team was able to be out there and really efficiently make snow," Hegeman said.
He's hoping to just continue that momentum and go into this year with a really fun winter.