The ski season is almost over for most Juneauites. Although snow lingers at higher elevations, Eaglecrest Ski Area is planning to halt all operations March 13.<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, unless there\u2019s more snow,\u201d said Charlie Herrington of Eaglecrest. \u201cIf there\u2019s more snow, we will reopen, but as of now, the plan is Thursday through Sunday, and then after that, we will suspend lift operations until more snow falls.\u201d<\/p>\n
In an email sent Monday afternoon, Herrington said that while conditions remain good for skiers who hike up the mountain, they aren\u2019t good for people who use the lower mountain or those who ski all the way down.<\/p>\n
Eaglecrest employees have attempted to keep the Summer Road covered with snow to allow one path for skiers to descend, but there simply isn\u2019t enough snow left in nearby meadows for that to work anymore.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have already extracted all the snow we can from surrounding meadows to patch things up. Shoveling and picking out rocks isn\u2019t feasible when considering how much more skier traffic would be descending the Summer Road. Every turn pushes snow and reveals a new rock,\u201d Herrington wrote.<\/p>\n
While Eaglecrest does have snow-making equipment, it hasn\u2019t been cold enough or dry enough on the lower mountain for that equipment to work, said Jeffra Clough, Eaglecrest\u2019s director of sales and marketing and the snowsports school.<\/p>\n
In humid, warm conditions, \u201cyou just don\u2019t get snow; you get heavy water\u201d from the snow-makers, Clough said.<\/p>\n
It needs to be below 28 degrees for an extended period of time (and it can\u2019t be too humid, either) in order for the snow guns to function properly.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been real frustrating,\u201d Clough said.<\/p>\n
Conditions at the ski area\u2019s two cross-country tracks remain good.<\/p>\n
In addition to the closure of the Porcupine Chairlift on Sunday, the rental shop and other lodge facilities are expected to shut down.<\/p>\n
The early end of the snow season means no costume-bedecked Slush Cup race for a second year, and less revenue for a ski area that is supposed to pay for itself.<\/p>\n
Counting through Sunday, Eaglecrest will have been operating for 67 days this winter. While a puny figure compared to years past, it\u2019s better than last year, when the upper mountain was open for five days and the lower mountain (which benefitted from the snow guns) was open for 44.<\/p>\n
Clough said the ski area \u201cdid come in with lower pass sales this year than last year,\u201d but it was doing well before a warm, rainy period scared some skiers off.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere definitely is interest in the community,\u201d she said, \u201cso we\u2019re not willing to give up on that interest yet.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wes Adkins, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Juneau, said there\u2019s still a flake of hope for skiers. A wave of showers will bring snow at higher elevations later this week, with two to four inches possible at Eaglecrest by Saturday.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s some hope; I don\u2019t know if they can stretch it on that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Contact reporter James Brooks at james.k.brooks@juneauempire.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The ski season is almost over for most Juneauites. Although snow lingers at higher elevations, Eaglecrest Ski Area is planning to halt all operations March 13. \u201cWell, unless there\u2019s more snow,\u201d said Charlie Herrington of Eaglecrest. \u201cIf there\u2019s more snow, we will reopen, but as of now, the plan is Thursday through Sunday, and then […]<\/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":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[75],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-32650","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32650","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=32650"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32650\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32650"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32650"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32650"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=32650"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}