Salt Lake City, UT – Salt Lake City residents are sitting under a Blizzard Warning this morning issued by the National Weather Service. It’s the latest in a series of major snowstorms rolling across the West, prompting many ski resorts to move up their opening dates this season. At the same time, however, warm air pooled over the East is forcing ski resort operators their to delay planned season debuts.nThe storms, which have dropped large quantities of snow in many western regions, have also been accompanied by strong, gusty winds such as those leading to the Blizzard Warning in Utah today. These winds have hampered resort efforts to open additional ski terrain, or even maintain operations. Brian Head Resort in southern Utah was unable to open on Saturday as planned due to high winds that kept the resort’s chairlifts grounded for the day. While only Chair 3 is running at Brian Head this week, officials there plan to open lifts 2, 4, 5 and 6 on Friday.
Resort operators are moving forward even in the face of the wind. Storms rolling ashore along the Pacific have dumped up to eight feet of snow in the Lake Tahoe region of California and Nevada, where Sierra-at-Tahoe Resort in Twin Bridges, Calif., will open today for its earliest opening in the past six years. Its Easy Rider Express, Nob Hill and Rock Garden will begin turning at noon today, accessing beginner, intermediate, and expert terrain and a medium-sized terrain park on Broadway. Lift tickets will be just $5 for kids, $20 for adults with all proceeds going to local sports teams. They’ll then go top to bottom on Wednesday morning. Sierra Resort’s new beginner terrain featuring two new carpet conveyor lifts is projected to open on Thursday for ski and snowboard lessons.
“This was the perfect storm,” said Tourism Director Andy Chapman of the North Lake Tahoe Resort Association. “It came in fast, dropped a ton of snow, setting us up with superior snow conditions and skiing for the holiday weekend. Skiing and boarding at Thanksgiving is what Lake Tahoe is all about.”
Across Lake Tahoe at Sugar Bowl Resort in Norden, Calif., six feet of new snow has fallen in the past week, just in time for the resort’s opening day on Wedndesday. Sugar Bowl lifts in operation Wednesday will include Jerome Hill, White Pine, Christmas Tree, Lincoln Express, Disney Express and Nob Hill. Officials plan on adding the Mt. Judah and Summit Chairs on Thursday to access most of the mountain’s terrain, conditions permitting. Base facilities for opening weekend at Sugar Bowl include the Mt. Judah Lodge, Judah Retail, Judah Rentals, Village Cafe, Belt Room, Village Rentals, Village Tickets and the Village Chalet Ski Shop. All access to Sugar Bowl will be via the Judah entrance.
With nearly 70 inches of new snow reported, California’s Bear Valley ski area will be open for Thanksgiving Weekend, Nov. 26-28, and all standard tickets will be half price the entire weekend. The plan is to operate four lifts including Kuma, Koala, Cub and Super Cup on Friday, along with the Panda Carpet on Saturday.
At Mammoth Mountain in Mammoth Lakes, Calif., one of the biggest early season dumps of the last decade dropped more than seven feet on the summit and almost four feet at Main Lodge over the weekend. That massive snowfall will allow resort staffers to open the Canyon and Eagle lifts on Wednesday, just in time for Thanksgiving, joining the terrain already open at the resort in the central Sierra.
Further north in Oregon, Mt. Hood Meadows is reporting 24 inches of new snow in 24 hours this morning. Resort spokesperson Dave Tragethon describes the new snow as “amazingly light.” Meadows opened for the 2010-11 winter season this past Saturday, and now reports a 55-inch base on the slopes for daily operations for the remainder of the season. There are six lifts currently scheduled for operation at Meadows, including three high speed quads, and resort officials expect that the new snow will allow opening of additional lifts and terrain.
All of the new snow is enough to prompt officials at Bridger Bowl near Bozeman, Mont., to move up their scheduled opening day by two full weeks. Storms have provided a settled snow depth of 42 inches as of Monday at the area’s mid-mountain weather station near the top of the Alpine chairlift, so instead of waiting until Dec. 10 as originally projected, Sugar Bowl will open this Friday, Saturday and Sunday. All chair lifts except Schlasman’s are scheduled to operate. Skier services will be limited, the ski buses will
not be running and no Playcare services will be available. After the upcoming three-day weekend, the ski area will close on Monday with another long weekend of operations scheduled for Friday, Dec. 3 through Sunday, Dec. 5.
Also in Montana, these storms will allow Discovery Ski Area to open most of its front side terrain for Thanksgiving Day. The Anaconda lift will run serving the entire front side, save for the Sluice Box and Berkeley runs. The ski area’s back side, where the resort’s new Silver Chief triple chairlift awaits its first riders, will remain closed. Lift ticket prices will be reduced to $29 for the entire holiday weekend.
In Idaho, Schweitzer Mountain Resort will open for the season this Friday and operate through the holiday weekend. Top to bottom skiing and riding are anticipated, with the Basin Express Quad, Great Escape Quad, Musical Carpet and Musical Chairs Double expected for opening day. The Nordic trail network is also planned for opening day, with several trails expected to be groomed. The resort will be closed midweek following the holiday weekend, re-opening for the first weekend in December. As of Monday, Schweitzer’s snow depths ranged from 16 inches in the village to over 40 inches up top. Full day adult lift tickets will be discounted to $50 this weekend.
Across the border in Canada, Mount Seymour in North Vancouver, British Columbia, will open on Thursday for skiing and snowboarding. Officials there have tallied 84cm (33 in.) of new snow over the past week, and staffers have been busy getting the mountain’s terrain off the Mystery Peak Chair and Goldie Rope Tow ready to open. The resort’s new Enquist Lodge will also be opening at the SnowPlay Park this Thursday.
At the other end of British Columbia, Fernie Alpine Resort will open this weekend after receiving over 100cm (39 in.) of new snow over the past week. An estimated 44 runs will be open along with four chairlifts: Elk Quad, Great Bear Express, Boomerang Triple, and Haul Back T-bar. Discounted early season lift ticket prices will be in effect.
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This past Sunday looked more like a February powder day than November at Alta Ski Area in Utah. |
In Utah, Snowbird Ski and Summer Resort and Alta Ski Area, both of which are already operating this winter, have each logged over 100 inches of snowfall already this season creating some of the best early skiing and riding conditions in recent memory. The Little Cottonwood Canyon resorts received two and a half feet of snow since Saturday with an additional one to two feet forecasted before Thanksgiving. Snowbird’s mid-mountain base depth currently measures 54 inches with over 3,000 vertical feet of skiing offered from the Aerial Tram.
“With this fantastic early snowfall, we’re excited to offer skiing in Peruvian Gulch, Gad Valley and Little Cloud Bowl with our eye on opening additional terrain for Thanksgiving weekend if conditions permit,” Snowbird President Bob Bonar said on Monday.
All of the new snow has, in fact, prompted Deer Valley Resort officials to open their Summit Meadows Adventures guided snowmobile tours on the Garff Ranch near Park City even before the start of the ski season. While the snowmobile tours are now open for winter, Deer Valley skiers will have to wait until Dec. 4 to carve their first turns on the resort’s famed corduroy.
While a number of Colorado ski resorts are already open for the season, several others are set to come online this week. At Crested Butte Mountain Resort (CBMR) in the state’s southwestern corner the chairlifts are being dusted, the slopes groomed and trail map dispensers stocked in time for a Wednesday opening. They’ve received more than 70 inches of snowfall so far this season, including over 17 inches this week alone, and they’ll kick things off Wednesday for their 50th season with 19 trails and five lifts — the Red Lady Express, Peachtree and Teocalli chairs, plus the Pine and Aspen Magic Carpets — for the best opening conditions in six years. Trail openings for Wednesday total 105 acres covering 19 trails, or 20 percent of the resort’s beginner and intermediate terrain.
Ski Sunlight near Glenwood Springs, Colo., will also open on Wednesday, their earliest opening since 2002. They’ll open nearly 60 percent of their terrain, mainly on the mountain’s west side, before closing again on Monday. Sunlight will go to seven day a week operation Dec. 3.
Officials at Steamboat say that when they open on Wednesday, it will be the Colorado resort’s best opening in more than a decade. A series of storms have blanketed the mountain with nearly four and a half feet of powder this month and six feet of snow since Oct. 23 at Thunderhead, the resort’s mid-mountain location at 9,080 feet. Steamboat is currently reporting a 38-inch base at mid-mountain and 52-inch base at the summit, the deepest amounts ever seen for an opening day.
“You have to go back more than a decade, all the way to the 1996-97 winter, to see as phenomenal a start to the season as we’re experiencing this year,” said Chris Diamond, president and chief operating officer of the Steamboat Ski & Resort Corporation. “The 2010-11 opening will be one for the record books.”
Steamboat will open on Wednesday with five lifts, approximately 926 acres and 66 trails, including much of its legendary tree terrain. In addition, a specially-priced $30 lift ticket and a $20 lower mountain lift ticket option will be offered on opening day, also known as Scholarship Day.
Locals and visitors will even have a chance to ski Las Vegas starting Friday, when Las Vegas Ski & Snowboard Resort (LVSSR) kicks off its 2010-11 season. Three chairlifts and one surface lift serving LVSSR’s 11 trails and Darkside Terrain Park, a freestyle terrain park for skiers and snowboarders, will run daily from 9 a.m. until 4 p.m. Amenities such as The Sports Shop, The Big Horn Café and The Bristlecone Lounge will be open for service daily from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
“Last season was the longest in our history,” says Kevin Stickelman, president and general manager of LVSSR. “This year, with our increased snowmaking ability and many other upgrades, our guests can look forward to a bigger and better season.”
It’s not all white roses everywhere around the West, however, as recent storms have been bypassing the deep Southwest, where Ski Santa Fe has been forced to postpone its opening day from Thanksgiving, now scheduled for Dec. 10. La Niña storm patterns typically drive incoming storms across the Pacific Northwest and down into the Intermountain Region, which has been the case thus far this season. Elsewhere in New Mexico, Taos Ski Valley is still gearing up for a Thursday opening, and Sipapu near Taos is already up and running for the winter. Red River staffers are making snow in an effort to get their ski season underway as well.
Even in Colorado, Monarch Ski Area didn’t get the deep new snowfall they had hoped to receive, and officials there have postponed their opening from Wednesday to “as soon as we have enough snow.”
It’s even more brown and green in the East, although some ski areas have managed to take advantage of every brief window of opportunity to make snow to scrape together a Thanksgiving holiday opening. In Vermont they’re thankful for a Thanksgiving Day opening at Mount Snow, where lift serviced terrain will open for all ability levels on Thursday including a full terrain park at Carinthia. In all four lifts will run, servicing seven trails on two mountain faces. As part of the annual Mount Snow Thanksgiving weekend, Santa and Mrs. Claus will make their way into the base area beginning at 5:30 p.m. on Saturday, escorted by the West Dover Fire Department in their ladder truck. Guests gather in the base area between the Capehouse and Clocktower buildings to witness a torchlight parade and fireworks, after which Santa and the Mrs. will meet at the fireplace inside the base lodge to take photos and listen to every kid’s holiday wish list.
In New York’s Adirondack Mountains, Whiteface staffers have been making snow since last Thursday and they report that they’re ready to open the mountain for its 53rd ski and ride season on Friday, when the Cloudsplitter Gondola will carry passengers to the summit of Little Whiteface to access Excelsior, Upper Valley, and the Summit Express. Skiers and riders will then load the Little Whiteface chair to return to the summit of Little Whiteface. At the conclusion of their day, they will then download on the Cloudsplitter Gondola. The Lower Valley, Fox and Mixing Bowl trails are expected to open for the season Saturday, bringing things top to bottom.
“We have great coverage on Excelsior and Upper Valley, and with a few more cold nights we should cover the Lower Valley, Fox and Mixing Bowl for Saturday,” said mountain manager Bruce McCulley. “This will give us 2.5 miles of skiing for Thanksgiving weekend, which is a great start to the season.”
Closer to New York City, temperatures in the Catskill Mountain town of Highmount are dropping into the 20’s at night, which is good weather for snowmaking at Belleayre Mountain Ski Centre as the resort prepares to open for the 2010-11 skiing and riding season sometime this weekend after the Thanksgiving holiday. Officials say that at this point it is too close to call whether the mountain will open Friday, Saturday or Sunday, but once opening day arrives it will feature $25 lift tickets.
In West Virginia, Mother Nature has once again proved how fickle she can be, forcing Snowshoe Mountain to delay it’s opening day for the winter ski and snowboard season after the unusually mild fall. Snowshoe’s Opening Day was planned for this Wednesday, but the resort has seen only trace amounts of natural snowfall since early October, and has had very few chances to make snow for sustained periods. Forecasts do show cold air and possibly some natural snowfall moving into the resort’s area beginning late this week, and Snowshoe officials promise that they’ll be aggressive with snowmaking whenever possible. A new opening date is weather dependent, and Snowshoe will announce that date as conditions allow.
For a complete list of resort openings, consult our Conditions page here at First Tracks!! Online.