Area’s Ski Resorts Will Miss Holiday Spokane, North Idaho Slopes Still Lacking Sufficient Snow

For the first time in six years, ski resorts around Spokane and North Idaho will be closed Thanksgiving weekend.

The traditional start of the ski season is being delayed by rain and mild weather in the mountains. The freezing level above Spokane was at 11,000 feet Tuesday.

The only ski resorts planning to open are hours away in Montana and British Columbia.

At Schweitzer Mountain Resort near Sandpoint, only a few inches of snow cling to the upper slopes. The ground is bare near the lodge, so Schweitzer is closed.

“We’re just waiting for Mother Nature to do her part,” said Bill Mullane, a spokesman for the resort.

The same is being said at Silver Mountain at Kellogg, 49 Degrees North near Chewelah, Mount Spokane and Lookout Pass Ski Area east of Wallace. They all are closed.

Resort operators said they can survive a delayed opening, but only if they get a lot of snow prior to the Christmas holiday period. That is when they need big crowds for a financially successful season.

The last time so many local resorts remained closed at Thanksgiving was in 1989.

Big Mountain near Whitefish, Mont., and the British Columbia resorts of Big White, Silver Star and Apex are open. They are reporting hard-packed runs, or limited skiing on groomed slopes.

Crystal Mountain resort in the Washington Cascades also was planning to be open this weekend.

It’s not a lack of precipitation that is hurting the resorts, it is the warm weather in the upper elevations.

Earlier this fall, most resorts built small snowpacks, only to see them melt. Schweitzer has gotten 20 inches of snow through a series of storms, but most of it is gone now.

The melt-off has allowed rivers to rise. The Spokane River was running at nearly 10,000 cubic feet per second on Monday.

Forecasters are calling for a cooling trend, which will bring snow to the mountains by the weekend.

“As long as the freezing level comes down, we’ll be all right,” said Ann Pigeon, at Whitewater Ski Resort at Nelson, British Columbia, which is targeting Dec. 2 for opening.

, DataTimes