MOUNT HOREB, Wis. — Wisconsin’s weather has been unpredictable so far this winter, fluctuating between warmer weather and frigid temperatures.
It might leave outdoor enthusiasts wondering how their favorite winter sports will be impacted.
Skiers took to the hills at Tyrol Basin in Mount Horeb Saturday, including one Boy Scout troop from Illinois. For a few years now, they’ve made Tyrol Basin their destination for their annual ski trip.
“We always come out to do something outdoorsy, which helps the scouts grow,” said Kai Liu, a leader with the troop. “It is about a learning process to create young men and women who are better adapted to the real world.”
The group, and the many other skiers who were there bright and early Saturday morning, didn’t let the cold weather bother them.
For Nathan McGree, the owner and general manager at Tyrol Basin, temperatures in the teens just means more opportunities for snowmaking.
“When it’s cold like this, we fire as much of our snowmaking as we can on terrain that we’re wanting to open or train that we want to refresh and we run it until it’s not cold,” he said.
Tyrol Basin has been open since November, and since then, Wisconsin has experienced some variable weather. That includes warmups, cooldowns and hardly any real snow in some spots.
McGree said that hasn’t impacted business, and hasn’t deterred folks from hitting the slopes.
“Climate, the weather, it’s kind of an ebb and flow,” he said. “Some years we have warm, some years we have cold.”
Climate change means that ebbs and flows in the weather are becoming more common. Jim Engel, the executive director of Skiing Wisconsin, said Wisconsin’s ski hills are used to adapting to the changes.
“We had warm winters and then the very next winter it was a cold winter,” Engel said. “So I would say more that it’s a cyclical system of analyzing the years from one year to the next of over the course of time.”
At Tyrol Basin, McGree said they’re always investing in their snowmaking equipment, ensuring they can stay open as long as possible. He encouraged those who are worried about climate change’s impact to check the live cameras at any ski area that they plan to visit.
“We make sure we have a good base of snow down so when it does warm up, we’ll have plenty of snow to last through and then once it gets cold again, we’ll cover it with nice fresh new snow and spruce it back up,” he said.