Last Big Canadian Resort Opens For Season At Last
Last Big Canadian Resort Opens For Season At Last
Published : 29-Dec-2023 07:34
Most ski areas right across North America have been struggling with warm weather and a lack of snowfall impacting their ability to open much terrain and in some cases to open at all.
It's unusual for almost all parts of the continent to be impacted at the same time, typically when one side of the continent is doing badly for snowfall, the other is doing well. This time through there are problems almost everywhere and the blame appears to lie with the 'very strong El Nino' that's bringing warmer weather from the Pacific – alongside the growing impact of climate change.
The West Coast has been warm and dry, the East Coast warm and wet. The best conditions overall have been in Colorado and southern Utah where ski areas did get a foot or so of snowfall just before Christmas and some have 100+ runs open and some are getting close to fully opening their slopes. Up in Alaska, too, there has been plenty of snow with some areas just passing 3 metres (1q0 feet) of snowfall to date.
Resorts right along the Pacific Coast have had problems opening much terrain all winter. Mammoth Mountain in California, which stayed open to august last season after massive snowfalls has struggled to open even a third of its runs and the continent's biggest ski areas, Whistler Blackcomb, had less than half of its terrain open for Christmas although it is now posting 60% skiable.
However, its fellow BC resort Red Mountain (pictured above - library pic) that has been hardest hit, postponing its opening dated past Christmas and finally managing to open on December 28th, although initially with just 10% of its runs (just about) skiable.
"We cannot stress enough how important it is to understand that current early-season conditions on the mountain require all guests to stick to our designated and groomed runs. Natural hazards - both marked and unmarked - very much exist right now," a spokesperson said.
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