UH, OH, NO SNOW
The opening dates were set. The lifties were hired, the snowguns lined up to add even more to the base.
But the weather stayed warm. The slopes stayed dry. Ski season in Utah has been put on hold. Even the storm that dumped hours of rain in the valleys only left two or three inches of snow in the Wasatch Mountains.
"We had targeted November 15 for opening, but Mother Nature didn't support that day. We have not set another opening date," said Alta's director of Marketing, Connie Marshall.
Alta, at the top of Little Cottonwood Canyon, is always one of the first Utah resorts to get snow. But the first storm in weeks droped only five inches on Alta over the weekend. The mid-mountain base is just two feet. Temperatures finally dropped low enough on Monday, Nov. 12, to begin making snow. Marshall says the resort needs at least two decent storms before it will open.
Krista Parry, of Park City Mountain Resort, says they have pulled back on their scheduled Nov 16 opening.
"We are going to delay it until next Wednesday, Nov. 21. We're hopeful that cooler temps are coming. There's supposed to be a low pressure coming in this weekend, and that will allow us to make snow," she said. If no natural snow comes, the resort will need 72 hours of snowmaking before it can open.
"The inversion traps the warm air up high, with the cool air below. If we don't get the cold temperatures, we will delay opening until we have good snow," Parry said.
Snowbird's Laura Schaffer says the resort has not yet changed its opening date.
"We're in a waiting pattern and we're going to watch some of the smaller storms predicted for this week. Up high, we've still got the snow from back in October. It's down low where we really need to see more snow," she said.
There have been many years when no natural snow fell by the scheduled opening dates, but it has rarely been coupled with temps too warm for the guns to make snow. Resort officials say there's no reason to panic yet, but the ripple effect of no snow could mean tourists cancel their reservations, hired seasonal staffers drift away to other jobs, and the economy of glitzy Park City begins heading south.