Prior to February 9th, New York City had seen less than 8″ of total snowfall this season, leaving more than a few people wondering if Mother Nature had forgotten what time of year it was. With “the city” as a huge source for winter skiers and riders, local mountains joined forces to remind folks that the mountains were covered with snow, even if Central Park wasn’t.

The plan? Create a mini-shred spot for the kiddos right in Union Square. As far as I can tell, the following resorts / partners were part of the festivities:

• Windham
• Mountain Creek
• Hunter
• Burton
• Ski Areas of New York
• Whiteface
• Red Bull

The setup was pretty simple. Each resort / partner brought a canopy, stand-up banner/flag. Trucks hauled it a ton of snow to form a rather impressive pile on the street corner. Burton brought boards and gear for kids to get their shred on. Hunter even hauled in a snowmaking machine to prove that, even when nature slacks off, resorts do in fact have the tools to overcome the lack of precip.

Word on the streets was also that professional snowboarder Pat Moore would be on hand to play the celebrity appearance role.

The Results
First, some pretty solid press coverage:

DNA Info
http://www.dnainfo.com/20120209/murray-hill-gramercy/union-square-snow-mound-gives-kids-first-taste-of-snowboarding

Wall Street Journal
http://blogs.wsj.com/metropolis/2012/02/09/snow-plans-late-entrance-on-new-yorks-mild-winter/

Big Apple Daily
http://www.bigappledaily.tv/snow-fall-union-square-thursday/

Gothamist
http://gothamist.com/2012/02/07/snow_is_coming_to_nyc_this_thursday.php

The Epoch Times
http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/united-states/ski-resorts-bring-snow-to-the-city-189251.html

A Success?
The crowds didn’t seem to be massive, but if you can’t get everyone to come, make sure you get the RIGHT people to come, right? A few kids shredding, reporters and photogs to pick up on the story, mission accomplished. A small setup like this couldn’t accommodate huge crowds, but I see this as more of story-bait than an actual big-time event. In my eyes, it’s a partial success. For the effort, it seems like some bigger outlets could have picked up on the story, but I like the ones who did and what they said about the event.

Either way, a clever approach to solve the age old “snow on the mountain but not in the backyards” conundrum that resorts face at some point in almost every season.

UPDATE
Just got an email from Bill Benneyan at Mountain Creek with some additional details:

Additional media coverage included:

WNBC (Broadcast)
2/9/12 – 5:40PM & 6:10PM (teasers), 6:15PM
2/10/12 – 4:50AM

WCBS (Broadcast)
2/9/12 – 5:50AM

Daily News (2/10 Print)

Bloomberg/Businessweek (2/15)
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-02-15/no-snow-winter-sends-skiers-golfing-as-smith-recalls-merrill.html

About Gregg & SlopeFillers
I've had more first-time visitors lately, so adding a quick "about" section. I started SlopeFillers in 2010 with the simple goal of sharing great resort marketing strategies. Today I run marketing for resort ecommerce and CRM provider Inntopia, my home mountain is the lovely Nordic Valley, and my favorite marketing campaign remains the Ski Utah TV show that sold me on skiing as a kid in the 90s.