We did not expect to be saying this after a drier-than-average season, but we are approaching the snowfall record for April. With this snow has come a unique set of challenges, especially in this last storm cycle. If you are looking for information on what happened with the power outages and closures/delays on Thursday and Friday, please read our previous operations blog, which we continued updating until noon today. This blog focuses on what to expect for Saturday, Sunday, and beyond.
Weather
After a stunning amount of snowfall for this time of year, (43 inches on the upper mountain) it will start to feel like spring skiing again soon. We don’t have any other storms in our 7-day forecast, so we are extra grateful for what this week has brought us. Here is what’s ahead:
- Daytime temperatures for Saturday will be in the low 40s with clear skies.
- By Sunday, we are back into the sunny 50s again. That trend of 48+ degree weather continues through Wednesday.
- Nighttime temps hover just over freezing most nights.
Lift, Terrain, & Conditions Updates
- There will be Terrain Parks in both Belmont and Gold Coast.
- We plan to open the Aerial Tram, the Funitel, Wa She Shu, Gold Coast, Shirley, Solitude, Granite, Belmont, Big Blue, Meadow, Bailey’s Beach, and the Carpets.
- There will be 80+ Ski Team participants on Siberia for a Camp tomorrow. Please be respectful of their space.
- Alpine is 100% closed.
- We have officially extended our season through May 15th, 2022. We will go for even longer if conditions allow.
- After May 1st, we will move to weekends (Friday-Sunday) only. More on this below.
Why isn’t the KT-22 lift spinning? Can I go over there anyway?
We had KT-22 and Headwall terrain open for hiking today. Once the sun popped out around noon, the snow conditions changed and we closed it. We *MIGHT* open it again if we have an ideal window in the morning, but this is not guaranteed due to already-warming snow. If we are open for hiking, please be respectful. If you don’t have hike-to-ski experience and you go up there and find yourself in a bad situation, you ruin this option for everyone. Please obey ALL signage and remember to ski within your means. If guests are going up there and heading over to closed areas like Red Dog or Poulsen’s Gully, we will remove this option entirely. Don’t be that person.
Patrol is also hiking to these areas of KT in order to be on stand-by. The lift itself is closed because we have stripped all hill safety from this area (ropes, pads, bamboo, signage, etc). KT-22 is a large and challenging zone. When we have to do a full re-open, it typically takes 10 people at least 2 full days to get it set up. By the time we do all the set-up work, there will not be enough snow to build a ramp due to snowmelt.
Why are you going to weekends only in May?
You have probably heard rumors about staffing, and we want to address these directly. This decision to go to weekends only in May is 100% a staffing call. At the end of March, with the season looking like it was winding down, we lost many employees to summer jobs. We definitely expected to be closing early! Then this shocking, exciting April snow showed up. With the remaining team members we have, we cannot ask them to work seven days a week to keep the resort open. We do not want to cause burnout for these folks that are so dedicated. We are also combatting the staffing shortage by bringing in Alpine employees, cross-training employees in different departments, and embracing any employee that would like to work more days and get paid overtime.
