Victor Glacier: How It's Made
The behind-the-scenes story of the run that just won't quit.
It's mid-May. Northern Michigan is doing that thing where it can't decide if it's spring or summer. Lawn mowers are humming. Patios are full. And up at Boyne Mountain… people are still ripping turns.
This year, we're chasing history. Memorial Day weekend on Victor is on track to mark the latest closing date Boyne Mountain has ever seen. Record-book kind of history.
If you've been following along, you've seen the photos. You've watched the videos. And you've all asked some version of the same question:
"How is this even possible?"
Fair question. So we cornered two of the people who actually make it happen: Chris Adams, our VP of Mountain Experience, and Bruce Farr, our Grooming Manager. We asked them to spill the beans on Victor Glacier. Below: the strategy, the tech, the late nights, the stockpiles, and yes, the flex.
It Started Two Summers Ago...
Here's the spoiler: Victor Glacier isn't built in a season. It's built over years.
When people ask when planning for the Glacier begins, they expect us to say April. Or January. Bruce sets them straight:
"…in my mind, the snowmaking upgrades that were done two summers ago are the true 'start' of the Victor Glacier." — Bruce Farr
That's when we overhauled the snowmaking infrastructure on Victor: denser coverage, better tech, more capacity. Specifically so we could absolutely hammer the run when the time came.
"This long-term thinking is what allows us to build the Glacier later in the season." — Chris Adams
That was the actual starting line.
The After Christmas Pivot
Through the holidays, Victor skis like any of our other top-tier runs. But once the Christmas peak passes, everything we do on Victor starts pointing toward one thing: Memorial Day. The strategy shifts from skiing the run to building it for the long haul, and every hour the guns can run, they run.
That means the whales come in.
Big ones.
If you've ridden Victor in February or March, you've felt it: a more unique surface, especially when it's cold. Are the whales for everyone? No. But every one of them is a deposit in the bank, and that bank is what keeps us riding into late May.
The Weekly Rhythm:
Here's the cadence that makes the Glacier possible:
Sunday through Thursday midday: Snow guns on, as much as humanly possible. Snowcats stay off Victor. The run belongs to the snowmakers.
Thursday night: Bruce's team rolls in and does the heavy lifting. Push out the piles. Smooth the whales. Spread the snow wide enough that Victor skis great by Friday morning, but leave it thick where the slope shades up so the depth holds.
Then rinse and repeat every single week.
The Tech Behind The Build
Remember those snowmaking upgrades Bruce mentioned from two summers ago? This is where they cash in.
The hardware doing the heavy lifting on Victor is the same SMI Super Pole Cat snow gun we use elsewhere on the mountain we just point a lot of them at Victor and push them to their limits. The difference is density and the upgraded tech from those infrastructure summers. More guns. Better guns. Same goal: bury the run.
Mounted in our snowcats is a system called SnowSat that measures snow depth in real time, so the team always knows exactly where Victor stands. Here's what it clocked on Victor this season:
- Mean snow depth: 149 inches. That's the average across the run.
- Deepest point (after the piles were pushed out): 260+ inches. That's over 21 feet of snow.
Behind those numbers is a season's worth of long nights, cold fingers and guns that barely got a chance to cool off. That's the price of admission for Memorial Day turns.
Snow Tetris
Snow is too valuable to waste, so the team plays Tetris with it all season long.
Strategic stockpiles get held at the top of Aurora and over in Piersons, then pulled onto Victor as needed. Top skier's-left of Victor stays extra thick so the top ramp can be rebuilt every weekend. And once Hemlock melts out up top, the team strips the leftover snow down to the bottom and feeds it into the Victor late season terrain park. Nothing on the mountain gets left behind.
Thanks, Mother Nature
This season, the goal was simple: lift-served skiing all the way through Memorial Day weekend. To get there, the guns ran every chance we got. We also had a serious assist from winter itself. Lake Effect went off this year, dumping around 170 inches of natural snow on the mountain. That's a serious foundation to build a Glacier on.
Spring cooperated too. A cooler stretch meant the snow held longer than last year, which meant we didn't have to spread it as aggressively before opening each weekend. The grooming team is making real time calls every single morning about how to attack Victor that day. It's a day by day decision to chase the best surface.
Victor Glacier on May 15 2025.
Victor Glacier on May 14 2026.
But Why?
Building Victor Glacier takes thousands of hours, a small army of people and snow guns that barely get a chance to cool off. So why bother? Chris breaks it down into two reasons:
"To show our commitment to our season pass holders that we have the best snowmaking system and are committed to using it for them. And — for want of a better wording — it's a flex to show what we can do."
For Bruce, it comes back to the simple love of being outside:
"My personal perspective is from passion and the love of outdoor recreation. How cool is it to have the ability to ski, golf, hike, bike, boat, etc. in the same day?"
Pretty cool, Bruce. Pretty cool.
The Shoutouts
Victor Glacier is a team sport, and the team is the only reason it exists. Some people who deserve every bit of credit:
- The entire snowmaking and grooming crews. Both Chris and Bruce made this point loud and clear: no team, no Glacier. Full stop.
- 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. (Yes, the guy named Victor is helping build Victor Glacier. We didn't plan it. The universe did.)
- Ryan Bezemek — for holding it down on the Glacier the past couple of weekends.
So, How is This Possible?
We asked Bruce and Chris the same question, and their answers tell the whole story.
Bruce on the mechanics:
"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."
Chris on the mindset:
"Anything's achievable. It just depends on how much you want to commit."
Mic. Drop.
Memorial Day weekend on Victor: top to bottom, lift-served, in May. It's the latest closing in Boyne Mountain history, and every long night, every stockpile, every Thursday night push was pointing at this. Come carve a few turns with us before the Glacier calls it a season.
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