25 November 2014

Lack of Snow Means No Skiing, Disappointing Thousands

Ski lift at Alyeska Ski Resort, 40 miles ESE of Anchorage


GIRDWOOD -- Brian Burnett, mountain services manager at Alyeska Resort, had some "very sad news" for Southcentral Alaska skiers and snowboarders Monday afternoon.

"No one should plan on skiing" this week, he said. The mountain that makes up the state's most popular skiing destination is still too brown to shred from top to bottom.

Historically, Alyeska sees at least a partial opening to the general public on Thanksgiving Day, but with little snowfall at the base and temperatures too high this year to make snow nearer the top, an opening appears unlikely this week.

The Old Farmer's Almanac long-range winter forecast said south-central Alaska would have a warm/rainy/icy first half of winter. The upside is that the second half is supposed to be unusually cold, with heavy snow.

That'll be a nice change of pace. 

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Seems odd to think of Alaska without snow yet but I recall late snow winters in Minnesota as a teen. It was kind of cool to see all the frozen ponds and lakes with no snow on them.

Rev. Paul said...

I hear ya, Preppy. Seems Alaska has a late-onset winter every dozen or so years; last one was 2001.

We got about 1.5" overnight, but that ain't much compared to normal. More in the forecast for next week, though.