November 11, 2005 in City

Early snow has ski slopes scrambling to draw crowds

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Jed Conklin photo

Dave Jones, ski patrol member for 49 Degrees North, marks the ski boundary on Thursday in preparation for today’s opening. Lift tickets will be $32 for adults and $25 for children ages 7-17. Children 6 and under ski free.
(Full-size photo)

Buried in the ticketing office at 49 Degrees North on Thursday, the only way Gabe Lawson could describe how preparations on the mountain for the first day of ski season were going was “organized chaos.”

That’s what the ski resort’s director of marketing calls the process of 40 or so workers putting pads on chairlift supports, filling kitchen fryers with oil and sweeping the lodge – all to make sure the resort is ready for the first crowds of the season. The ski area near Chewelah, Wash., and the Lookout Pass Ski Area in Idaho are scheduled to open today. Managers at other area resorts hope to have their mountains open on Thanksgiving.

“It’s almost full-out warfare out there,” Lawson said.

Nov. 11 is the earliest skiers and boarders have been able to slip down area slopes in 10 years.

“Generally it’s not even heard of in Washington state to open this early,” said Lawson, who figures he’ll be so busy today that he’ll be lucky to sneak in one run.

On the Montana-Idaho divide, workers at Lookout Pass were stocking the Day Lodge with food and cleaning out the beer taps, said Jim Schreiber, Lookout’s marketing director.

“The general mood is excitement,” Schreiber said Thursday.

With most students out of school for Veterans Day, Schreiber said he expects a large crowd.

Two women had a jump-start on the crowds, though. Schreiber said they walked 2½ miles to the top of the mountain Thursday, just so they could take the first turns down the fresh snow.

“Everybody saw them coming down the hill, so everybody was giving them a round of applause,” he said.

The weather may be the key between a picture-perfect opening day and a slushy one.

Highs in Spokane are expected to be in the upper 40s, but colder air may sneak above the valleys as a cold front moves in from the coast, according to the National Weather Service.

For the next week, highs will stay moderate in Spokane, with occasional rain showers dotting the area, meteorologists say. Mountains should continue to see snow, which makes Lawson happy. The season is already looking better than last year’s dismal showing.

“Coming off the coattails of last year, it’s nice to be getting people back out onto the snow this year,” Lawson said.

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