Eaglecrest Ski Area will give Juneauites a chance to shake off their turkey hangovers with a little early skiing.<\/p>\n
On Wednesday, Juneau\u2019s ski area announced it is opening upper-mountain slopes one week early to take advantage of good snow conditions.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe just want to get skiing,\u201d said ski area director Matt Lillard.<\/p>\n
According to measurements taken by the ski area, there is a snowpack of 51 inches at the top of the slopes and 20 inches at the base.<\/p>\n
After a nearly snowless year last season, \u201cWe\u2019re taking a \u2018ski it as soon as we can get it approach,\u2019\u201d Lillard said.<\/p>\n
Eaglecrest will open at 9 a.m. Saturday and Sunday, and close at 3 p.m., with operating hours dictated by daylight conditions.<\/p>\n
The National Weather Service forecast may put a damper on those hoping for good weather, however.<\/p>\n
On Wednesday morning, forecasters at the Weather Service\u2019s Juneau office cautioned that heavy rain and warming temperatures are expected from Thursday through the weekend.<\/p>\n
\u201cStorm totals between Thursday morning and Sunday morning range from four to six inches with up to 10 inches of rain possible,\u201d forecasters said in a statement.<\/p>\n
Temperatures are expected to be well above freezing at Eaglecrest, where the snowline will be above 3,000 feet and highs will be above 40 degrees.<\/p>\n
Rain or not, Lillard said the ski area will be open.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we can ski, we\u2019ll go skiing,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The Hooter and Black Bear chairlifts will be open to the upper mountain, and lower mountain lifts will remain closed.<\/p>\n
The snowsports school, rental shop and food services will be closed, and the snow bus will not operate. Skiing will be limited to advanced and intermediate skiers only, as a result.<\/p>\n
In addition to the early opening on Saturday morning, Eaglecrest is hosting from 4:30-8 p.m. what it bills as the Downtown Rail Jam in Marine Park.<\/p>\n
Marketing and events organizer Charlie Herrington said Eaglecrest will truck snow into downtown Juneau, where volunteers will pack it into a terrain park suitable for urban skiing and snowboarding.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re hoping for a good turnout,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
For those who just want to watch the action, there will be music, a light show, food, alcohol and local businesses marketing to Christmas shoppers.<\/p>\n
The terrain park is open to all skiers and snowboarders, and a small competition will take place at some point in the evening.<\/p>\n
If the weather doesn\u2019t cooperate the rail jam will be rescheduled for later in December.<\/p>\n
A call on the weather will be made Friday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Eaglecrest Ski Area will give Juneauites a chance to shake off their turkey hangovers with a little early skiing. On Wednesday, Juneau\u2019s ski area announced it is opening upper-mountain slopes one week early to take advantage of good snow conditions. \u201cWe just want to get skiing,\u201d said ski area director Matt Lillard. According to measurements […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":426,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":7,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[149],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-10931","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-life","tag-outdoors"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10931","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/426"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10931"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10931\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10931"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10931"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10931"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=10931"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}