There are many things that a ski area has no control over, such as the amount of natural snow it receives. But there are elements of the guest experience that it does have control over, such as the number and quality of its restrooms. Today it's time to look at Welch Village, which is about 12 miles west of Red Wing, Minnesota. Welch has public restrooms in four buildings: the ski school, the rental equipment building, the main chalet, and a bar.
The SkiLink Learning Center (ski school) is a fairly new building. While it's nice the main floor, the basement has that "unfinished basment" feel. The plumbing and heating ducts in the men's room are exposed, and the framing of the stall for the ADA toilet, where it meets the outside wall, is shoddy. The floor is concrete, and the walls are a combination of cinder block and poured concrete. On the positive side, it's large, and opaque windows allow in plenty of natural light. The restroom has one urinal and two toilets, two sinks, two soap dispensers, and two paper towel dispensers.
While the SkiLink men's room has the feel of an unfinished basement in a new suburban development, the men's room in the ski-rental building has the feel of a root celler. It's dark and dingy. Dingy, faded red bricks make up the floor; the walls are cinder block and poured concrete. The inadequate lighting was made moreso this day by the fact that the lights near the two urinals was flickering on and off. The urinals, by the way, have a divider between them, and auto-flushers, which helps control smells. One oddity of this room is that the urinals/toilets and sinks are back to back, so after you've done your business, you have to walk to a separate room to wash up. There are two sinks, each with a mirror, and two paper towel dispensers. There's one bottle of hand soap on a shelf above the sinks. Just outside the restrooms is a long hallway lined with lockers, used by ski racers and others. If you need to put on crash pads before hitting the slopes, or simply want a warm place to put on your boots, the hallway is a decent location, as it's close to the parking lot.
The main chalet has the nicest restrooms, one on the main floor and one on the second. They are mirrors of each other. The "civilized" touch starts with the fact that there are no outside doors, so if you're a germophobe, rejoice. It has five urinals (with dividers between all of them) and three stalls. (One stall is ADA compliant.) There are three sinks, two soap dispensers, and two paper towel dispensers. Even better, there are two large garbage cans to receive the spent paper towels. The floor and the walls are pleasant; the floor is ceramic tile, and the wall is finished. While there is no natural light, the overhead lights are more than adequate to the task. Bonus: The main-floor restroom doesn't require navigating any steps.Clearly, this is the "top loo" at Welch.
The men's room at Madd Jaxx, the bar at the eastern end of the property, is not as dingy as that of the rental builing, but it's probably the worst of all the facilities at Welch, for this simple reason: The bar has a rated capacity of 150 people, but there are only two urinals (no dividers) and no stall. There are three soap dispensers and two paper towel dispensers, but oddly, only one sink for all that. Worse yet, the placement of the sink, garbage can, and stall conspire to make the entrance/exit strictly a one-person affair. That is, if one person is leaving and the other is entering, someone's going to have to wait.
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