Used to ski there often before wife and child and it is still one of my favorite places. It takes maybe 2:30 or so from downtown plus the border. Red Mountain would be worthy of consideration. I usually bypass Silver and go to Lookout if I'm headed in that direction. Lookout Pass is small and not especially steep but gets light snow and has some good sidecountry access. All freeway driving from downtown, takes about an hour. Dealing with the gondola is a pain in the ass and it sometimes is closed for wind meaning no access to the mountain. Silver Mountain is great in April and sometimes later when the other hills have closed, the best skiing is to be had over where the old jackass Ski Bowl was (chair 4 and Wardner Peak). They have the best terrain of the local resorts but the passes are about double the cost, several access gates for getting out of the area. Schweitzer is a great mountain but more expensive. Drive time from downtown Spokane is about 1:20. It is where the family and I have our passes as it is affordable and the wife isn't as a dedicated to skiing as I am. Some good tree skiing up there but nothing real steep. Most skiers do not start skiing until the Christmas holiday.49 has a new lift going in this summer that will make accessing some terrain easier but won't really open up any new terrain, there is some skiing off the backside but no gates for access. "The early birds? Yeah, they’ve been chomping at the bit for a couple of weeks," he said. "We got about five inches of rain, but we do have a snowmaking system that we’ve been building over the last three or four years and we made probably 20 acre feet of snow in some real critical areas this fall and that snowpack held up amazingly well.”īakken says it will allow 49 Degrees North to offer skiing this weekend.Īt Lookout Pass, Matt Sawyer says he had some mild concern during the worst of the rain and balmy temperatures, but believes conditions will improve and skiers will enjoy a good season. “We lost all of our natural snowpack below about 5,000 feet," he said. We took the groomers out and packed it down in anticipation of the warm weather we were seeing in the forecast, packed it down so it was preserved, so the warm weather didn’t affect us too much," he said.Īt 49 Degrees North, General Manager Eric Bakken says an investment in technology will minimize the resort’s down time. “Last weekend we picked up 10 inches of fresh snow and then, after everyone had their fun on it, skied on it, we closed for the day on Sunday. Gus Colburn from Silver Mountain says his resort lost some snow to rain, but a little preventive work minimized that. Spokane on Thursday announced it intends to open on December 13. Schweitzer remained closed Thursday, but announced that it would reopen Saturday. Thursday morning came and the snow began falling again, which was a step in the right direction, but by then, Lookout Pass had made the decision to wait until Saturday to welcome skiers back. Spokane messaged earlier this week that it still hopes to open for the season on Saturday, but that they had to first navigate “some concerning warm weather.” Schweitzer’s homepage had a prominent message: "Lifts closed through Wednesday." Lookout Pass’s homepage advised that the resort hoped to open Thursday or Friday. On Wednesday, the resorts’ webcams showed empty slopes and chair lifts and runs flecked with patches of brown or even big bare spots. It meant they might have customers this weekend.įour of the five resorts in eastern Washington and north Idaho had opened for at least a few days of skiing before this week's rain forced them to reassess their situations. Thursday’s snow lifted the moods of Inland Northwest ski operators.
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