There’s no snow in the city, but skiing is fine in the mountains
One of the best days to ski is Super Bowl Sunday. You can turn for three or four hours on Mount Spokane and get back in time for the game. I left the dull grey city for sunshine and ideal spring-like conditions.
Later at the Super Bowl party, I talked about going skiing. People gave me incredulous looks. During this El Nino winter, they found it hard to believe the mountains can accommodate such an activity.
It’s true. Better yet, without snow to deal with in town or on the road, it’s the best of both worlds. Area ski hills are holding their own.
“For the most part, all of our lessons and programs are fully attended,” said Brad McQuarrie, general manager of Mount Spokane Ski and Snowboard Park. “We’re seeing a slight decrease in occasional day skiers because there isn’t that buzz downtown, but every day I’m thankful for everyone that shows up, especially when I hear all the talk about a low snowpack in the news.”
The perception may be that the skiing and riding isn’t good, but sometimes it doesn’t matter if you’re turning on 60 inches or 100 inches. Sunday I ripped huge arcs at high speed on excellent corduroy. No one was in my way. I skied right onto a chair after every run.
At Schweitzer, the snowpack is almost identical to last year’s early February readings: 52 inches at the base and 75 inches on top. Visitation is 25 percent ahead of last year. Schweitzer saw a gain of 2.3 percent over last January, a record month for the resort.
“Most of the gains were related to our early opening – Nov. 27 versus Dec. 12 last year, said Tom Chasse, President and CEO of Schweitzer Mountain Resort.
“We’ve certainly dodged a bullet with snowfall with the snow level around 3,500 feet most of the season. I’ve got my fingers crossed that winter will arrive in the Spokane-Coeur d’Alene metro area any day to extend our season well into spring.”
Lookout Pass announced a 38-percent increase in lift tickets sold to date. Lookout CEO Phil Edholm also gave credit to his area’s early opening on Nov. 13. Lookout’s trends include a 7.7 percent increase in revenues and a 6.5 percent increase in skier visits.
“Much of our success can be attributed to the outstanding job our grooming crew has done to produce a consistently good surface product,” Edholm said. “We’re certainly not seeing the numerous powder days we’ve become accustomed to at Lookout, but current conditions are the best we’ve seen this season.”
At Silver Mountain, marketing director John Williams said skier visits are about 2 percent higher to date. Those numbers were about 30 percent higher until the resort’s gondola went down for five days a few weeks ago.
“We tracked every day we had snow and looked at the Web site traffic,” Williams said. “What we found is that our Web site traffic spikes during snowstorms. Skier visits spike when the snow isn’t flying. We always do better when the weather is mild. Modern grooming is incredibly important. We’re moving snow and repatching stuff every night. Next day it’s brand new again.”
The local leader in snow depth is 49 Degrees North, with 90 inches on the summit. Marketing director Brad Northrup said the resort is having the season it expected.
“The best part of the season is just getting here now,” he said. “February and March is when we get the big dumps, and looking at the weather models that’s what they’re saying again this year.”
Don’t be fooled by our false spring. Get it while the getting is good.