China Peak is preparing for another busy ski season

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- The resort needs to fill hundreds of positions as it looks to build on momentum following two straight profitable years.

Just as department stores eagerly anticipate a busy holiday shopping season to commence just after Thanksgiving.

Ski resorts like China Peak are also preparing for what could be another lucrative winter.

China Peak owner, Tim Cohee said, "Record season pass sales, this would be an all-time record for season pass sales. So between that and a 60th anniversary coming up, brand new lift first quad great job fair we're pretty optimistic."

Following four years of drought China Peak is coming off two of its most profitable seasons.

And while owner Tim Cohee is optimistic about opening Thanksgiving weekend he says it is not necessarily critical to his bottom line.

"Thanksgiving weekend is a great opening because again it's exciting, everybody likes to talk about it...we bring people on we get people trained...from a pure revenue standpoint it's meaningless, nothing really matters until we get to Christmas vacation...then it really matters," explained Cohee.

What matters right now is having enough employees for the start of ski season - whenever that might be the resort is in the process of making 300 hires for the upcoming season.

"We expect to double the hiring from a year ago and I think what's happening is we're coming off a couple of really good years we had a four-year drought that was the worst in 80 years and people are saying I'm ready to get back into the sport."