Boyne Mountain, located in Northern Michigan, is turning the 2025-26 ski season into the longest in its history. The resort will still offer skiing and snowboarding this Memorial Day Weekend on what has been dubbed the “Victor Glacier.” The feat has people’s heads turning within the ski industry. On its website, Boyne Mountain released an inside look into how skiing and riding until late May was made possible.
It is a behind-the-scenes look at everything it took to ensure Victor Glacier and Boyne Mountain would still be operating with challenges like warmer temperatures and rain that occur during the Spring. The process actually started two seasons ago, according to Chris Adams, Vice President of Mountain Experience, and Bruce Farr, Grooming Manager. It is a long, expensive, and labor-intensive process to build a glacier, so why do it? “To show our commitment to our season pass holders that we have the best snowmaking system and are committed to using it for them,” Adams said. “And — for want of a better wording — it’s a flex to show what we can do.”
Prepping Victor Glacier
Building a glacier at a ski resort doesn’t happen in one week; a lot of preparation and planning goes into turning it into a reality. The time, technique, process, equipment, and manpower needed to make all this happen began with ensuring Victor Glacier had enough snow. It sounds simple enough, but it’s something that many ski resorts do not do (outside of Killington and Camelback Mountain). “In my mind, the snowmaking upgrades that were done two summers ago are the true ‘start’ of the Victor Glacier,” Farr said. Long-term planning is what allowed this historic season to happen at Boyne Mountain. Having the insight to know that the ski resort needed to upgrade its snowmaking capabilities set up the success it is having now.
Building Victor Glacier
It takes a long time to establish a base on a ski run to last until the end of May, and that process started after the holidays. Building Victor Glacier takes thousands of hours, a small army of people, and snow guns that barely get a chance to cool off. Like Killington and Camelback Mountain, Boyne started blasting as much snow on the glacier as possible to get bases from 124 to 260 inches deep. This also means taking every opportunity and snowmaking window that Mother Nature would allow. Boyne Mountain uses SMI Super Pole Cat snow guns on the slopes, and they blanketed those on Victor Glacier to bury the run. The ski resorts received around 170 inches of natural snow on the mountain this season, setting up a strong foundation to build Victor Glacier on. “Lots of technological advances within snowmaking and grooming equipment, lots of hours and long nights from our teams on the ground, cooperation from Mother Nature, and of course a little bit of luck,” Farr said.
The weekly schedule of Victor Glacier during this process was done methodically and intentionally. Sunday through Thursday midday, the snow guns were on as much as humanly possible, while the snowcats stayed off Victor Glacier. These days the run belongs to the snowmakers, to do their magic to make those huge whalebacks needed to establish the base. On Thursday night, the grooming team rolls would push out the piles of snow and smooth out the whalebacks. The goal was to spread the snow wide enough on Victor Glacier so it would be in great condition by Friday morning.
There is a lot of science and thought that goes into where to blow snow on a mountain. Many ski resorts do a great job at it, while some do not. Snowmaking is an expensive operation, and not wasting it by blowing snow at the wrong place leads to poor conditions and shorter seasons. Boyne Mountain stockpiled snow and whalebacks on Victor Glacier at the top of Aurora and Piersons. This is a common technique that a lot of groomers use to push the snow from the top and not from the bottom of the slope. It is done this way because as skiers and riders hit the slopes, they push the snow down the mountain. Therefore, caching snow at the top of the mountain ensures groomers have stockpiles ready to push out on the slopes.
Giving Credit to the Ones Who Made Building Victor Glacier Possible
Building Victor Glacier is a team sport, and the team is the only reason it exists, according to Adams and Farr. They both expressed their deep thanks to every person who made it possible. From the entire snowmaking and grooming crews, Ron Rose, Snowmaking Manager — the engine room of the whole operation, Victor Hart Jr. — for pushing out and smoothing the run for almost every weekend of the season, and Ryan Bezemek — for holding it down on the Glacier the past couple of weekends.
Goal Achieved
This Memorial Day weekend marks the final stretch of what is now the longest ski season in Boyne Mountain’s history.
After months of sustained snowmaking, planning, and favourable conditions, skiers and riders are still able to access top-to-bottom lift-served terrain on Victor Glacier.
“Anything’s achievable. It just depends on how much you want to commit,” Adams said.
Victor lift will operate Saturday through Monday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., bringing the resort’s historic season to a close.
