Bill Jennings: A bounty of skiing opportunities
If you’re the type of person who would rather carve snow instead of turkey, you may have plenty to be thankful for on Thanksgiving Day. More terrain was available within easy reach last weekend than this region has seen in a few decades.
A mountain manager once told me we can hope for Thanksgiving weekend turns around here about 25 percent of the time. Based on that axiom, it’s likely the odds are even less for skiing and riding to be this good, so early. Will this last?
There have been some years when a road trip to Utah or British Columbia was required to ski and ride in November. But all five mountains within a two-hour driving radius of Spokane were open as of last weekend.
As usual, Lookout Pass was first. Lookout is blessed with a microclimate that produces average seasonal snowfall totals roughly 100 inches greater than its neighbors. But Lookout’s Nov. 4 opening was unusually early even by its standards. On Veteran’s Day the following weekend, 49 Degrees North kicked off its 2017-18 season.
The storms that came through the region a week ago pushed the remainder of our local hills over the top. A single storm dumped 16 inches of new snow on the summit at 49 Degrees North and 12 inches at the lodge.
“There’s openings and then there’s ‘Oh my God’ openings packed full of powder,” said Eric Bakken, Base Area Manager at 49 Degrees North. “We’re off to the strongest start in over three decades in terms of crowd count and snow totals.”
After last week’s storm, Willy Bartlett, marketing manager at Silver Mountain, ventured out to scout the deepening snowpack. He said there was too much powder to ski Silver Belt along the ridgeline of the chair two basin.
“It isn’t steep enough,” he said. “So I went back up to try Steep and Deep and the powder was blowing up around my waist. It’s rare that it piles up all at once like that. I can’t think of another time we’ve had this much powder just two or three weeks into the season.”
What a difference a week makes. An ominous warm, wet weather outlook for this week cast a shadow on reports of mountains sparkling with fresh snow. Meteorologists are very accurate these days. There’s a chance rain could be falling on the slopes while the turkey is roasting in the oven.
But the news may not be as bad as it sounds. Be thankful that a snowpack is remarkably resilient to rain. Wet weather may put you on hold, but it shouldn’t set you back.
Warmer temperatures will melt snow, but only at the surface because snow is a good insulator. Where snow meets the ground, the snowpack stays at about 32 degrees Fahrenheit. In normal winter conditions, the temperature tends to get colder toward the surface. Rain will refreeze when it hits a cold upper layer. A normal overnight freeze preserves the snowpack.
Prolonged mild nights could increase the likelihood that layered temperatures will consolidate to just about freezing. This is called an “isothermal state,” which makes the snowpack vulnerable to a runaway melting cascade.
I saw some predicted overnight lows at higher elevations well above freezing for this week. That could be cause for concern in late February. Should we fret in late November? Rain tends to solidify a base for future snows to fall upon. Temperatures should correct to more seasonally appropriate levels by the start of next week. I’m going to bet that prevents a melt down with plenty of time to spare.
Into every snow season, a little rain must fall. Meanwhile, La Niña should continue to push moisture into the Polar jet stream that tends to pass over the Pacific Northwest in wintertime. Veteran mountain managers have seen it all.
“It’s my job to take what comes our way and make the best out of it,” Bakken said. “So far it’s been really easy.”