49 Degrees North Owner Preparing For Big Expansion Resort’S Size Will Be Doubled In Two Or Three Years
“Post-holing” usually refers to what happens when you walk on deep snow covered by a thin, icy crust. Each time you take a step, your foot breaks through the crust, creating a “post hole.”
John Eminger remembers postholing four years ago while inspecting the quarter-acre roof of 49 Degrees North’s lodge. The catch: The roof didn’t actually have any snow on it at the time - it was just rotten.
The same might have been said for the local ski industry in 1996. Schweitzer was a year away from bankruptcy. Mount Spokane was in turmoil. Silver Mountain had just changed hands.
Eminger, a Nevada real-estate developer with local roots, bought 49 Degrees North, moved his young family to Chewelah, Wash., and has spent the intervening years making repairs and laying the groundwork for a $3 million expansion that will double the resort’s size in two or three years.
Things haven’t always gone smoothly. “It’s taking longer than I ever imagined to get the Forest Service to OK a chair in the east basin,” Eminger says.
But he doesn’t seem to have lost any of the enthusiasm and energy he brought to the cozy resort four years ago.
“If you approach this as a business and not as a way of life,” Eminger observes, “the ski industry will eat you up and spit you out. You have to have a sense of stewardship.
“When I say our glades are perfect, it’s because I was in there with a chai nsaw this summer making it so,” he says. “Maybe that doesn’t help our bottom line, but I know everything is nice and tidy.”
Speaking of bottom line, Eminger describes last season as great. “Our numbers were the same as the year before, around 66,000 skier visits,” he says. “But the previous year was so far off the scale that I didn’t think we’d get there - especially with Schweitzer coming out with their ultra-cheap season passes.”
Adult weekend and holiday lift tickets will creep up $2 this season to $32. But bargain hunters can still look forward to half-price Tuesdays and two-for-$22 Mondays. And, once again, skiing will be free during spring break.
Location: 90 minutes north of Spokane via U.S. Highway 395. Tickets: Adults (16-64) weekend/ holiday all-day, $32; midweek, $25; youth (7-15) weekend/ holiday, $24; midweek, $22; master (65-plus) weekend/holiday, $25; midweek, $22. Hours: 9 a.m.4 p.m. Friday through Tuesday; open daily during holidays. Child care: $3:50/hour; free nonholiday midweek. Lessons: Free one-hour beginner lesson; group and private lessons vary. Nordic: Free, 5K groomed. Snow phone: (509) 880-9208. General information: (509) 935-6649. E-mail: ski49n@ski49n.com. Web site: www.ski49n.com.