Biathlon Excitement

We are very pleased and proud to have hosted our first winter Biathlon event at Garnet Hill Lodge on Sunday, January 6th, 2013.  It was a great success with a large, enthusiastic turn out and a very talented field of competitors.

The event was sponsored and run by the Capitol Region Nordic Alliance (CRNA) organization and is just the first of many events they will be holding at GHL this winter season.

The shooting range was put in down at the Tailings this summer and worked out very well.

See our website for more... events that will be held this season.

A few of the athletes pose for a photo after the race

Agusto (Goose) Perez is a US Paralympian Nordic XC and Biathlon athlete. He is also a 2 time paralympian in curling in 2010, Vancouver, CA and 2006 Torino, IT.  He is also a World Bronze Medalist in Kayaking.  After losing his leg and pelvis to a rare form of cancer only five years ago, Goose has taken up the Nordic winter sports with enthusiasm and gusto and we were very pleased to have him at our competition on Sunday.

Here Goose comes in for one of his shooting rounds in the Biathlon event.

And it Snowed and Snowed

Finally, we have had a bonified snow storm that has deposited about 24" of snow over the last several days.  So the entire staff is busy flat out to get everything done for this busy holiday week.

The Christmas Holiday and Christmas Week have been wonderful here with more snow falling this week than we saw most of last winter!  The Ski Shop is humming along with excited & enthusiastic skiers.  We've been challenged to get trails rolled and groomed due to the continual snowfall...but today should get us caught up in grooming.  Guests are enjoying everything about the lodge, from the decor, the live piano music and the fireplace, to the food, the service and great wintery weather.  Mindy and I are so pleased that things have come together as much as they have.  It's been a busy year and we're grateful to our employees who have done so much to help us get to where we are. 

On Saturday Mindy led a group ski out to the Sugar House for hot chocolate and cookies which everyone enjoyed very much.  We will be doing more of them as the season goes on, and hopefully we'll even be able to serve pancakes and maple syrup out there a few mornings.

The snow is really piling up at the Log House, and it's beautiful.

4H Trail in the lull between snow storms last week.

The view from the lodge 

Some folks getting ready to go out on the trails

Arriving at the Sugar House on Saturday for hot chocolate and cookies

One of our Traditional rooms showing off a new decor

Our new fireplace seating area is working out nicely...Guests love the sofa and rocking chair

Open House Hightlights

On Sunday, December 9th, we held a One Year Anniversary Open House to share what we've done and accomplished over the last year.  We also put our entire cross country ski inventory on sale and sold a good amount of equipment.  Meanwhile at the Lodge people were able to take a tour, see the Christmas decorations, and peek in on the changes that we've been making to the hotel rooms and have a hot drink and some cookies to go along.

In room 10 we've made significant changes by incorporating a new bed head board and foot board that came from an old farm house.  The decorative birch bark on the head board looks like it could be a painting in its own right.

All of the Lodge rooms have gotten new bedspreads, curtains and shower curtains this fall as well as a number of new mattresses.

Mindy's Christmas decorations are phenomenal this year.  We'll do a separate blog entry about those as well.

The Skishop has also been upgraded in a number of ways, including a new retail sales system to make it easier and faster to get people out on the trails when it's busy.  We will also have full service waxing stations and frequent wax demos to show how much ski waxing can make it so much easier and more enjoyable.

Our ski programs and event offerings are going to be extensive this year.  Please check out our schedule of events here: www.garnet-hill.com/activities.htm