Thin snow and thin crowds: Spokane-area ski hills navigate rough winter

The crowd was thin at Mt. Spokane Ski and Snowboard Park on Thursday, buoyed mostly by a group of homeschoolers who came up for the day.

The snow was thin, too, as evidenced by the sign greeting skiers and snowboarders at the Beginner’s Luck chairlift.

“Low snow conditions,” it read. “Use at your own risk.”

No one wants to see that sign in February, but that’s been the reality of this winter, if it can still be called that. Snowstorms have been infrequent and unimpressive, leaving many ski areas with far less snow than they normally have this time of year.

Around the Inland Northwest, the ski hills mostly opened late and with limited terrain. Rain in December made matters worse, and January did almost nothing to help them recover.

People who work in the ski industry often sound like perennial optimists, always sure a season-making storm will eventually arrive. This year, however, even the most seasoned of ski industry spin merchants can’t sugarcoat it.

“I’ve been in the business for 50 years,” said Matt Sawyer, the director of marketing at Lookout Pass Ski Area. “This is definitely one of the worst seasons I’ve ever seen, period.”

Low snow portends trouble for the summer, stoking fears of rivers drained to a trickle and skies filled with smoke.

In the short term, it’s forcing workers at ski resorts to make the most of what they have.

They’re moving snow from one spot to another to fill in runs. They’re carefully planning grooming schedules to ensure runs don’t get torn up by their snowcats. They’re roping off terrain that’s off limits, and they’re marking obstacles people need to avoid.

“It requires so much more work than people realize in the background,” said Taylor Prather, director of marketing at Schweitzer, in Sandpoint.

Still, elbow grease doesn’t cure a snow deficit, and skiers and snowboarders have been staying home.

Visitation is down across the industry, including at all five of the resorts within a two-hour drive of Spokane. Sawyer said Lookout is down by at least 35%, despite having far more snow than any of the other hills in the region.

The picture is bleaker at Mt. Spokane.

“We’ve only seen 10% of the visitations that we should have seen by now,” said Jim van Loeben Sels, general manager at Mt. Spokane.

The trouble began with a late start to the season. The mountain didn’t open until Dec. 27.

But even once they got open, the crowds were light.

Fewer people means less money coming in, which means managers have been forced to limit work hours for their staff members to cut costs. Mt. Spokane shuttered the mountain on Mondays and Tuesdays last month, deciding that there weren’t enough people coming to justify keeping the mountain open seven days a week.

Van Loeben Sels said more tough decisions are likely ahead this summer as they plan for next winter.

“We can’t make up what didn’t happen in December and January,” he said. “We have to pivot.”

Silver Mountain in Kellogg had its bunny hill open to skiers at the end of November, giving it the distinction of opening before the rest of the area’s other resorts. Then December’s warm and wet spell undid that, forcing the mountain to close for a time.

Jeff Colburn, Silver’s general manager, said business picked up in January, but that he still expected it would be down from the year prior.

The mountain added a couple new snowmaking machines this winter, which has helped them add snow on their beginner runs.

Snowmaking has given a major boost to 49 Degrees North, near Chewelah. Rick Brown, the resort’s director of skier and rider services, said the resort has been able to improve conditions significantly in recent weeks.

“I think our season would look a little different without the snowmaking that we have,” Brown said.

The mountain is still short. Its website boasts an average annual snowfall of 301 inches. As of Friday, the mountain had received 56 inches for the year.

And only some of it has stuck around. The mountain reported 25 inches at the summit on Friday.

Even with low snow, Brown said people are out on the mountain having a good time.

“There’s no reason not to be out enjoying winter,” Brown said. “It sure beats sitting at home in front of the TV.”

Plus, it’s still only early February. Ski industry optimism may be slightly deflated, but it’s not dead.

Sawyer, at Lookout, noted that there are still 85 days left in his mountain’s season.

“There’s plenty of time to get a lot of runs in,” Sawyer said.