By Jim Stanford on November 16, 2007
Wednesday was one of those bracing mornings when you walk outside and find it’s a lot colder than you thought.
Snow King was able to make snow round the clock from Tuesday evening to Thursday. Seemed the real cold was here, finally. No more messing around.
Lasted all of two days. Now it’s raining again.
Grand Targhee announced it won’t open this weekend, as planned.
Snow King is a long way off from its traditional opening on Thanksgiving.
Anecdotally, this has to be the warmest year on record for Jackson Hole. Great for lovers of summer and lower heating bills. Not so sweet for skiing.
I asked Jim Sullivan, Snow King ski area manager, if it’s getting harder each year for his crews to coat the lower slopes with snow.
His deputy, Jim Fulmer, responded: “Yes, it seems to be more and more of a grind to get our snow made. We are looking at upgrading our pumps for next winter to give us a chance to make more snow each time the temps are good.
“We will not make the Turkey Day opening, but we have the possibility of making it the next week if we get some help from Mother Nature in the form of good cold temps. I see some single digits for next week, and if we can keep the system going 24 hours a day we can make some good gains on the snow front.”
Brrr … that’s a chilly forecast, any way you look at it.
Posted under ski resorts, skiing, snow king, targhee
hey, if it doesn’t snow I’m grabbin my carveboard and going to Jackson’s new sports facility - the parking garage. Sure, I’ll park there…at the top after shuttling the bros to the top to catch some turns.
I’ve received a few inquiries from afar, so here’s an update, as of Saturday:
Wintry conditions are improving. Targhee opened parts of its mountain Wednesday, and reports were pretty good. Coverage is surprisingly solid.
Snow King has been making snow round the clock for days now and is close to linking the piles. The King ought to have at least a narrow lane open for skidding in just a few days.
JHMR has such a sophisticated snowmaking system, it seems, that they just turned on the faucet and had most of AV covered weeks ago. At the very least, the main groomed runs on AV should be ready by opening day.
It’s been clear and cold. Really cold. Five below at night.
Not much snow in the forecast, but the BTNF Avy Center reports the base we do have has a lot of moisture.
So, all in all, not a bad start to the winter …