MIDWAY, Utah — Wasatch Excursions has had to adapt to a more hybrid system when it comes to their snowmobiling tours.
“We first rode on an ATV up the mountain, and then once we got kind of quasi to the top, a little bit of on an edge there. We got on snowmobiles, and we rode all the way to the top of the mountain,” said Jolee Skinner, who was visiting from Texas on Sunday.
Visitors seem to like the feature, but the staff has had its challenges this season.
“I have not seen the mountains this brown in any season,” said lead tour guide Patrick Kessler. “The problem is this year, with the snow being at a higher and higher level, that road is much longer, and so we're spending a lot more time in a side-by-side than we are on a snowmobile.”
Not only have they had to adapt, but also make sure they are meeting certain safety standards.
“This year, we've seen a decrease, not in the number of phone calls that we're receiving, but the number of broken hearts that we're delivering,” Kessler said. "We don't want to ride snowmobiles in adverse conditions or unsafe conditions… It takes having good snow or maintainable snow, and that's been the biggest struggle.”
The recent weather change, however, has made a difference.
“I don't think we needed to get much colder. We could use some more precipitation and some more snow because we struggle to manage the ice… We can manipulate the snow more to our liking,” Kessler said.
But they are no stranger to having to adapt. They had to close their Bear Lake location due to lack of tourism in the winter and not having good snow conditions, but the Midway location seems to have better snowpack.
“Once the snow levels, we have a good snowpack, and we have a good snow level,” Kessler said. "It was more beneficial for both companies for them to shut down their winter operation, and us to absorb a lot of it.”
In the meantime, guests are making the most of it.
“We were a little worried when we first drove up here, because there wasn't a lot of snow on the ground, and we were like, 'Is this going to happen? We don’t know,'” Skinner said. "It was a little bit of a treacherous climb at first in the ATV, but once we got up there in those snowmobiles, it was a blast.”
As for the staff, they just want one thing: more snow.
“Let's just forget December and pack all of the winter snowpack into January and February,” Kessler said. "I would rather deal with eight feet of snow for the next two and a half months than this snow.”
Wasatch Excursions told FOX 13 News that they’ve dabbled in making snow themselves, but with the warmer temperatures, it has been difficult to maintain.
