Great Bear Blog

Annual Review

OK, It's that time again, let's hear it - the good and the bad from this past season.......

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Favorite Ski Area

Ok - What's your favorite ski area and why?

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Snirt Fest 2010

OK, new topic. What should the theme be for this years Snirt Fest?

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General Blog

So,

What should we blog about next?

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Great Bear Concert

If you could see any band at a Great Bear concert next summer, which one would it be?

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The Season will soon be here!

Hey Everyone! First blog of the 09 / 10 season! How cool to see snow this early, I REALLY hope that this is a sign of things to come. We have received lots of GOOD comments and suggestions recently and are trying to work them into the pre season plans. Little update on our projects, we have increased our fill capacity into the pond which means that we can make more snow faster! In addition, we have 2 new snow guns coming in to add to our already well stocked fleet. We are planning on building a new feature for the park, probably going to be a large picnic table of some sort. For those of you who rent gear, we bought lots of new skis, boards and boots - check out our new Rental Equipment Season Pass! Building a new tube storage facility near the tubing park and we are filling it with more tubes, hopefully you wont have to share anymore! Man I'm excited, stay tuned for more updates as the season draws closer. PS - For some great early, early season skiing and snowboarding, visit some of our sister areas, I know that Wild Mountain will be opening soon!!!!!!!!

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Season in review

Ok, the season is over - wow it seems to go fast! Feel free to comment on the good, the bad and the ugly. A few things:

King of the Hill - good concept however to subjective, won't do it again.

Park Crew - finally got it done! Thank you Matt, Alex, Tanner, Alex and Terril (and Larry said we couldn't do it). Jumps still questionable - I think we can do better

Snow Conditions- in spite of what the dude from USF says, I thought that the hill was in great shape a majority of the time. The Renovator continues to prove its worth.

Season length - No snow from December 23rd to late February and still pulled a 92 day season!

Other comments?

Thanks for the season, have a good summer and see you next fall!!!!

Dan

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Events

Ok, I have has several event suggestions for next season, give me some of YOUR ideas.....

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Terrain Park Features

Ok guys, I saw the rather crude park drawings and election results - now it's budget time. I can purchase 1 new park feature for next season , what should it be?

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What's on your mind?

Ok, believe it or not we are at the half way point of our season. What's on your mind? What can we do (within reason and keeping safety in mind) to keep you interested?

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Welcome 2009

Well, the new year is here, hopefuuly everyone survived the long holiday break! The Bear has been very busy the last few weeks and now that we are back to regular operating hours, we're going to crank up the snow guns again. In Grizzly Park look for the Wall Ride to be raised 4 feet in the park and new lines, more snow will be added to the Tubing Hill to insure that we will be tubing until March and of course a complete recoat on the hill will take place.

Our Sunday events series has started and the King of the Hill points have been posted in the Bears Den Lounge. Don't forget that Fun Ski is right around the corner, save the dates of January 30th and 31st.

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Grizzly Park is now 100%

The park is now 100% open. We have set a couple of nice lines, put in a table top, roller and put the Wall Ride up. We have also formed a park crew that is now working the park and operating the park lift during peak times! Our 1st Rail Jam of the season is Sunday December 28th. This will also the be the first King of Great Bear event, if you don't know what this is about, check out the events page for details.

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Snowmaking

It’s that time of year again, I wake up every morning and hit all the weather sites looking for a forecast that is promising for snowmaking. You wouldn’t believe the variations in forecasts for the same area! My favorite sites are the KELO TV weather page, AccuWeather.com and the National Weather Service Forecast from Sioux Falls. Essentially what we are looking for to start the process is overnight temps of 20 degrees and lower. But wait you say, water freezes at 32 degrees, why can’t you make snow when the temps fall below freezing? Well, we could but the quality of the snow would be poor and the quantity would be small. Keep this in mind, it costs BIG BUCKS to make snow, ie. 3 guys to work, lots of electricity, 500 gallons per minute of water and snow inducer at $1000 per case. Some other little known facts are that at this time of year the coldest part of the night tends to come at about 5am, and the humidity is still pretty high (we like to see relative humidity’s below 80%). But hey, we are as anxious to open as you guys are so whenever we can, we’ll be making snow! Wouldn’t it be nice if Mother Nature were to help!?!?!?!

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Terrain Park

I know all you guys are jones’en to get in the park and there has been a lot of talk this year about staffing the park. Here’s the deal (that’s for you Marc). We are going to provide Great Bear staff to manage and maintain the Terrain Park during peak operating hours. I had a lot of interest in these positions during the off season but didn’t see a lot of you at the Job Fair, presented by the Sioux Falls Federal Credit Union (read shameless sponsor plug!). Sooo, we will review staff candidates and go from there. New feature this year, a 6’ X 12’ Wall Ride. Should be pretty cool, not sure where we are going to place it, but something tells me that you guys will have lots of ideas on where to put all the park features! I’ll let you know when we are ready to start setting stuff…

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Welcome to the new and improved Great Bear website!

Hey gang! Welcome to our new site, I hope that you find this helpful, interactive and fun. I invite you to explore the site, try everything, and let me know what you think. Some highlights that I hope you find fun.

Bloging – I plan on keeping 2 or 3 current blogs going and encourage you to participate. Please keep any comments you may have clean and relative. Be fair to your fellow bloggers.
Download your images – Go to our image gallery and view and download your favorite pictures. Once again keep it clean, I reserve the right to edit any and all images for appropriateness.
Download your videos – c’mon I’ve seen some of your videos posted on You Tube, they’re great and now you can post them to your home area site! See above for edit rules.
Calendar of events – we now have upcoming events posted on the homepage (just to your left of the blog area) stay up on what’s coming up.
Great Bear online store – a great place to purchase passes, gift cards and Bear Bucks from the comfort of your home.

These are just a few of the cool things we have created, please feel free to comment on what you see!

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Great Bear Season Pass

Purchase your 2008 2009 Great Bear season pass on line now and SAVE MONEY! Visit our Great Bear on line store and take advantage of a $20.00 savings

Great Bear is booking reservations for chalet rental April - November, have your wedding reception, company picnic or special celebration here! Call 605.367.7317 for further information. Go to our photo gallery to view images of the chalet.

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