The holidays at Terry Peak Ski Area

LEAD, S.D. (KELO) — The weather outside might be frightful, but not for skiers and snowboarders out at Terry Peak today. The holidays are one of the busiest times of the year for the resort.

Even though weather conditions haven’t been ideal out here at Terry Peak, traffic has managed to pick up over the holidays.

“With the fresh snow we got yesterday, which we got about 6 to 8 inches, it sure has helped the slopes out a lot,” Derosier said.

Linda Derosier, the marketing manager, says the resort will be open today, tomorrow and New Years.

“We’re open every single day through the end of our season 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily, so yeah we’re off to a good start for our season now we just need a little cold and some more snow,” Derosier said.

Snowboarders Libby and Hannah Weaver, from North Dakota, are in town for Christmas with their grandparents. This is their second year at Terry Peak.

“Just getting out on the slopes and doing some socially distanced fun for the holidays. Yeah, we’ve been sitting in the house a lot so we thought getting out of the house and going snowboarding would be fun,” Libby & Hannah Weaver, snowboarders, said.

Todd Keyes is from Spearfish, and says he enjoys bringing his friends and family out to the slopes.

“I mean the conditions obviously aren’t ideal by any means but we make do with what we got and we’ll still have fun anyway,” Keyes said.

Derosier says folks seem to be following the COVID-19 health guidelines pretty well so far.

“We are asking everybody to keep the coolers, the gear bags, and equipment out of the lodges just so we can have space for more social distancing of course,” Derosier said.

“We do a pretty good job of social distancing on the ski slopes. Everybody’s pretty bundled up here today with facemasks even regardless,” Keyes said.

The Terry Peak Ski Area just opened last Wednesday due to the lack of snow. Only three slopes are running at the resort currently, but officials hope to have more open soon.