‘We’re all excited to finally see a lot of snow’: Spokane-area ski resorts relieved and ready

Blankets of crisp, white snow have largely been missing from Spokane and the region’s slopes – but all that changed this week.

Silver Mountain, Mt. Spokane, 49 Degrees North Mountain Resort, Lookout Pass and Schweitzer all reported several inches of new snow Wednesday and decent skiing or snowboarding conditions. This is what snow fanatics have been waiting for: The mountains are coming alive with locals armed with puffer jackets, skis, boards and mittens.

“We got a great dump last night,” Silver Mountain General Manager Jeff Colburn said. “We’re all excited to finally see a lot of snow.”

Silver Mountain reported 16 inches of new snow on Wednesday morning. In December, Colburn said the mountain had another good storm that brought snow in for skiing, but rain washed it all away. Silver Mountain was down for six days in December. But Colburn has an optimistic outlook on the rest of the season and says the best snow is likely yet to come.

“We’ve had lots of powder hounds up here today,” Colburn said on Wednesday.

That day, 56 out of the mountain’s 73 runs were open.

Colburn said the mountain will likely get 6 more inches by Thursday morning, just in time for Jackass Day, when ski lift tickets are $20 each.

On Wednesday morning, Schweitzer reported 6 new inches of snow blanketing the slopes. Around 49 of Schweitzer’s 92 trails were open for use on Wednesday, and six out of the 10 lifts operated throughout the day.

Mt. Spokane reported getting 12 inches of snow on Wednesday morning and is anticipating 3 more inches of fresh snow on Thursday morning.

On Wednesday afternoon, Lookout Pass had 15 inches of snowpack, and 73% of its trails were open.

“It’s normally not where we’d be at this time of year, but it’s not bad,” said Rick Brown, the director of skiing and snowboarding at 49 Degrees North Mountain Resort. “There’s a good winter ahead of us, it just had a late start.”

49 Degrees North Mountain Resort also had a good snowfall on Tuesday, getting 4 inches of coverage on the summit and 2 inches near the lodge, Brown said. According to Brown, 54 of the 90 runs were open at the mountain resort on Wednesday. A few of the lifts are not operating right now, which limits the number of runs that are open, Brown said. And even so, the trails that are lower elevation have less snow on them, Brown said, making some of them off-limits.

In the past 72 hours, Brown said the resort has seen 17 inches of snow fall on the summit. On Wednesday, snow depth was 22 inches at the summit and 13 inches near the lodge, Brown said.

For the average skier or snowboarder, though, the recent snowfall will make overall conditions good enough for decent runs. Now, the mountain has about 2 feet of snow coverage over most of the terrain, so the skiing conditions are pretty good, Brown said. Brown does recommend that folks check weather conditions before making the drive out to the slopes.

“People don’t need to be afraid to come,” Brown said. “We don’t have a lot of rocky, rough terrain to cover. We also do the most extensive summer maintenance program in the region, mowing, brush cutting and vegetation management.”