Flagstaff, AZ – With almost three feet of snow blanketing the ski resort from the weekend storm and up to another foot anticipated on Wednesday, Arizona Snowbowl is ready to swoosh into its 75th Anniversary Season at 9 a.m. Thursday morning with a controversial pipeline to carry treated wastewater to the mountain for snowmaking ready to go.
“The whole mountain will be open Thursday. All primary runs have packed and fresh powder and our trained staff is ready to load that first chair,” said Arizona Snowbowl General Manager J.R. Murray.
Flagstaff Mayor Jerry Nabours will be on hand to welcome community members, skiers and snowboarders in Arizona Snowbowl’s 75th Anniversary Opening Ceremonies at 8:30 a.m. with a ribbon cutting, hot chocolate and donuts at Agassiz Lodge.
“Flagstaff is now and always has been a ski town,” said Mayor Nabours. “Having Arizona Snowbowl open in time for the holidays is a wonderful gift for the community and our visitors.”
New infrastructure and equipment will make skiers’ and boarders’ time on the slopes more efficient and rewarding this season, resort officials indicate. Grading and thinning, along with new and wider terrain, have improved 134 of the ski resort’s 777 acres.
“As part of our ongoing effort to improve the experience for beginners and introduce newcomers to the sport, two conveyor belts brought in recently will continue to shorten lift lines and make skiing easier for those who may be intimidated by the process of getting on and off chairlifts,” said Murray. “We’ll also be offering more than 500 free ski and boarding packages in January for Learn to Ski and Snowboard Month.”
The resort has added another Bombardier snowcat to its grooming fleet this winter. It will also be used in the resort’s Sunset Terrain Park to help maintain park features.
“With the new Snowcat and the work we’ve done on the trails to grade, smooth out and create a more consistent fall line, we’ll be able to groom more of the ski area and do a better job in a shorter period of time,” said Marketing and Sales Manager Dave Smith. “This makes five new snowcats in the past four years.”
To ensure a longer season and supplement snow cover between storms, Arizona Snowbowl expects to be using snowmaking equipment for the first time this season. Water is a scarce commodity in the desert Southwest, and to provide a reliable source of water for snowmaking, Arizona Snowbowl this summer finally completed a pipeline to carry treated wastewater purchased from the city of Flagstaff to the slopes.
The plan was the subject of a protracted legal battle for over a decade with local Native American tribes and environmentalists who tried several strategies to unsuccessfully block the project, with grounds ranging from religious liberties to public health concerns. A federal appeals court sided with Snowbowl in February, allowing for the construction to proceed this past summer. Just last week, three activists were charged in federal court for protests against the snowmaking plan that disrupted work at a U.S. Forest Service office in September.
Future improvements planned for Arizona Snowbowl include new chairlifts, a pedestrian bridge and improvements to the resort’s Agassiz and Hart Prairie lodges.