Inland Northwest’s patient skiers have earned reward

Two days before the end of the year and it is clear that 2005 refuses to go out with a fizzle. Dashed hopes are rising, the snow level is falling, and I caught up with Larry Schick, the Imperial Grand Pooh-bah of Powder, for a shot of optimism and a look into the crystal ball as we head into the new year.

As we take a look back at 2005, I think we can all agree the skiing and snowboarding in the Northwest were not a highlight of the year. There was that great powder day over Martin Luther King weekend in January. But by early March, Mt. Spokane, Schweitzer and 49 Degrees North were closed for the season, and Silver Mountain and Lookout Pass were open weekends only.

An unexpected snowfall in mid-March was enough for Schweitzer to reopen up for a few more weekends. There was a third powder day in April, I think. Opening day in November is being heralded as one of the best in many years followed by a dry, deep freeze that preserved the great snow, gave us sunny days in December, but followed with a thaw that brought tears to my eyes. That sums up my 2005 retrospective of the ski and ride season.

Let’s not dwell on the past but rather see what the future has in store for us. Schick is a weather forecaster for the Army Corps of Engineers in Seattle. According to Schick, the tides are indeed turning. Cooler air is causing the snow level to drop, and there is a “conveyor belt” of storms lined up and ready to hit off the West Coast. As Larry checked his devices while on the phone with me, he gasped and said slightly under his breath, “Oh, Saturday looks like it should be a good day for you guys (in the Inland Northwest).”

So, big picture – what’s up with the weather? Are cold, snowy winters in December a thing of the past? Is our winter going downhill? Should we just pack up and move to Colorado, Tahoe or Utah? Ah, yes, the snow is always whiter and fluffier on the other mountain. But then I remember that Colorado is recovering from a sustained drought of almost 10 years that rendered its 2002 snowpack to about 5 percent of normal. Tahoe had a record powder last year, but this year there was no skiing there over Thanksgiving. They got 2 feet of snow on Monday, and then it rained to the top of mountains on Tuesday. Utah? OK, maybe Utah is a powder utopia.

But here’s my point: Weather happens to even the best of us, and if we aren’t getting the powder, someone else is. We can move where we think it’s better, but in that case we’re no better than the impatient driver on the four-lane highway who is never happy with his lane choice and continually changing lanes only to end up farther behind the point at which he started.

It’s hard to identify a pattern when you’re standing in the middle of it, but it would appear that we are in the midst of a warmer, wetter pattern. Let’s just hope it’s a pattern and not a trend. That pattern could end with 2005 or it could hang on. November and December have been marginal of late. Twenty years ago, it was consistently better. Perhaps we can return to that pattern soon.

These musings from an undernourished powder-lover are neither here nor there, because Schick has revised his forecast for the winter 2006 in our favor. What he originally categorized as a neutral El Nino/La Nina year is being upgraded to a weak La Nina year, which means that precipitation and temperature will get back to normal levels. In other words, winter is back. Don’t forget to make the cell phone call to your friends in Tahoe from the top of the mountain and send me your Saturday powder stories.