Snow Savers: The Wisconsinites That Make October Skiing Possible

While the ski season may have just ended, Trollhaugen Ski Area, Wisconsin, is already thinking about next fall.

Taking after European resorts that use a similar technique, the small ski area has spent the past several years covering and storing large piles of snow summer-long. When October arrives, Trollhaugen unwraps the snow and transports it to a suitable piste for use during its popular pre-season rail jam, Open Haugen.

The initiative—called a "little snow science experiment" by Trollhaugen's Marketing Director Marsha Hovey—came from the minds of Adam Mahler and Matt "Boody" Boudreaux, a dynamic mountain operations duo who you might've seen on the resort's Instagram page. "They are the snow scientists that I force to do silly videos," said Hovey.

Both snowboarders (find Boudreaux on Instagram with the hashtag wheresboody), Mahler and Boudreaux officially hold the titles of Mountain Manager and Assistant Mountain Manager at Trollhaugen. Together, they keep the ski area running smoothly, overseeing everything from the terrain park crew to snowmaking.

Having worked at Trollhaugen for over half his life, Mahler is a pillar of the ski area's tight-knit community. Boudreaux, who focuses primarily on nighttime operations, is, in his own words, the "vampire of Troll"—and known for his street snowboarding skills.

The pair's experiments with snow preservation are decades in the making.

Twenty years ago, Trollhaugen wasn't the Midwest terrain park and freestyle mecca it is today. The ski area's park crew were volunteers, and many of the rail features were handmade. To raise funds for the park and improve the features on offer, a ragtag group of freestylers—Mahler among them—banded together and planned an early October rail jam fundraiser. Thus, Open Haugen was born.

But Trollhaugen doesn't typically receive much snow in early October, forcing the budding rail jam hosts to get creative. Their initial source of early fall snow? Ice-rinks.

"I have a very detailed spreadsheet of ice arena locations, the mileage from Trollhaugen, where they leave the snow, how much snow they typically have," Hovey said with a laugh, illustrating that, over the years, the ski area got the ice rink circuit down pat.

Yet, Mahler and Boudreaux eventually decided there must be a better, more efficient way to continue hosting Open Haugen. Gathering snow from ice rinks was resource-intensive and time-consuming, and it put unnecessary strain on the trucks and trailers involved. "It would be a two to three week endeavor prior to the Open Haugen event, so costs would add up quick," Mahler explained.

After researching how ski resorts in Europe preserve snow at the end of the ski season, the Trollhaugen team fashioned its own Wisconsin-themed technique. Once winter ended, they sequestered a large pile of leftover snow, relying on straw sourced from a nearby farm for insulation and silage tarps—with the white side up to reflect sunlight—for protection.

The snow preservation process didn't work out very well the first year. Mahler and Boudreaux placed the covered pile in a location that received lots of direct sunlight, which led to much of the snow melting during the summer. This meant they were forced to once again rely on the ice rinks.

They gathered more snow the following year and moved the pile to a shadier location. It worked swimmingly, leaving Trollhaugen with an additional surplus of leftover snow. "We haven't looked back since," said Boudreaux.

After the 22'-23' winter, Trollhaugen had a large enough stock to host two events the following summer and fall. During June, the ski area sourced the preserved snow for a Red Bull competition called Bonus Track, which saw the creation of a summertime terrain park. Open Haugen also drew from the pile in October.

This past winter was less fruitful. Hovey said it was "one of the toughest on record" snowfall-wise for Wisconsin, meaning there's now less white stuff to work with. "This year, the pile is probably about as half as tall as it was the season prior," said Hovey.

Still, she imagines there'll be plenty of preserved snow come fall for Open Haugen 2024. The ski area also doesn't need to split the pile between two events. This year, it's just saving the snow for use in October.

And even if a series of freak temperature spikes hit Wisconsin this summer—melting the stash away—Trollhaugen isn't the type of place to operate without a Plan B. "No matter what, we'll make something work," Hovey said—her ice-rink spreadsheet exists for a reason.

Related: Crews Begin Annual Snow Clearing Of Montana's Beartooth Highway

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