(photo: Big White Ski Resort)
Resorts

SKI SEASON UPDATE: More Early Openings and Reschedules

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Salt Lake City, UT – Opening dates at ski resorts across the West continue to fluctuate as more resorts take advantage of cold air for snowmaking and early season storms.

As for early openings, they include (in addition to those previously announced here): Bear Mountain, Snow Summit, Alpine Meadows and Squaw Valley, Calif.; and Big White, B.C., Canada. Regarding reschedulings, Copper Mountain in Colorado, which had initially planned to open on Nov. 6, has now confirmed its season debut on Nov. 11.

(photo: Bear Mountain)
(photo: Bear Mountain)

Bear Mountain and Snow Summit, both in Big Bear Lake, Calif., will join SoCal neighbor Mountain High Resort on the open list at 9 a.m. this Friday. Bear Mountain will spin chairs 9 and 7, with park features set up on Park Run and The Gulch. At Snow Summit, lifts 1 and 4 will operate, ski and snowboard lessons will be available and Upper Summit Canyon has been stacked with jibs and park features.  Opening day lift tickets will cost $35.

Bear Mountain will continue to operates Fridays through Sundays until Dec. 11, after which it will go to seven-day-a-week operation.

In Tahoe, less than a day after Vail Resorts announced that Heavenly and Northstar would both open ahead of schedule, Alpine Meadows and Squaw Valley announced that they’d do the same following another Pacific storm that’s dropping an additional foot of snow on upper elevations in the Sierra.

“With almost two feet of snow over the last week, including six inches of snow today on the summits of Squaw Valley Alpine Meadows, and even more in the forecast, both resorts plan to open ahead of schedule, weather and conditions permitting,” the resorts confirmed in a press release. “Optimal snowmaking temperatures and around the clock commitment from the Squaw Valley Alpine Meadows snowmaking team have made early opening a reality.”

Getting ready on Monday for an early opening at Alpine Meadows, Calif. (photo: Squaw Alpine)
Getting ready on Monday for an early opening at Alpine Meadows, Calif. (photo: Squaw Alpine)

Alpine Meadows will open at  9 a.m. on Thursday, a full month ahead of schedule, with its Kangaroo Chair spinning.  Squaw Valley will follow this Saturday, 11 days ahead of schedule, with skiing and riding on the Gold Coast Express.

RELATED STORY:  2023-24 Ski Season Progress Report as of February 29, 2024

In celebration of opening, Squaw Valley will host Squaw Valley Alpine Meadows Foundation (SAF) Scholarship Day on Saturday, during which the entire lift ticket cost, priced at $29, will be donated to ski team scholarship funding. SAF is a non-profit dedicated to supporting and enhancing the snow sports experience in the Squaw Valley Alpine Meadows community, with programs that focus on the areas of education, scholarships, infrastructure, facilities, and community advocacy.

Elsewhere in the Tahoe region, Mt. Rose Ski Tahoe and Boreal are already open, as is Mammoth Mountain well to the south of Tahoe.

Further north in Canada, following another 30 cm of new snowfall over the weekend, bringing its season total to 35 inches, Big White Ski Resort in British Columbia will open for the season nearly two weeks ahead of schedule at 8:45 a.m. this Friday, the resort’s earliest opening since 2001-02 and the first public opening in the province.

(photo: Big White Ski Resort)
(photo: Big White Ski Resort)

“Our on-mountain team works so hard at this time of year to make sure that season pass holders and visitors get on the snow as soon as Mother Nature allows,” says Michael J. Ballingall, senior vice-president of Big White Ski Resort Ltd. “It’s always been the family’s policy to open a lift as soon as snow permits and it’s safe to do so, and that’s what we’ve done again this year.”

At this stage, resort officials expect the Ridge Rocket Express Quad chair, the Plaza Quad chair and Lara’s Gondola to be operating. All lifts will operate until 3:30 p.m. daily, except for Lara’s Gondola, which will operate until 5 p.m. Open runs will include Highway 33, Serwa’s, Easy Out, Easy Street and Hummingbird.
 
Skiers and snowboarders visiting Big White will be able to purchase lift tickets at 50% off their regular retail price until the resort opens more chairlifts and terrain.
Elsewhere in B.C., skiers hit the slopes of Sun Peaks on Monday, but the resort was open only for training by visiting ski teams from Whistler, Mont-Tremblant and Edmonton. Sun Peaks won’t open to the public for another 11 days. Across the border in Alberta, both Mt. Norquay and Lake Louise are already open.
Finally, looking at delayed openings instead of early openings, cold weather and snowfall has arrived in Colorado following an abnormally warm October that thwarted Copper Mountain’s plans to provide early season training to the U.S. Ski Team, and skiing and riding to the general public beginning Nov. 6. Now that more favorable weather is in place, Copper Mountain has confirmed that they’ll finally open for the 2015-16 season tomorrow.
With Copper now opening on Veteran’s Day, the resort will offer free skiing and riding on Wednesday to all active or retired military and their dependents. This includes all Active Duty, Reserve, National Guard and retired military and their dependents (spouses and/or children). All military and dependents will be required to show a valid ID at the ticket window at time of purchase.
Copper Mountain officials plan to have top-to-bottom skiing on the trails Rhapsody and Main Vein, via the American Eagle lift. The Eagle Park will open on Friday, and ski and snowboard lessons will be available beginning on Saturday.
Elsewhere in the region, skiers are already making turns at Arapahoe Basin, Loveland and Keystone. Keystone is opening an early season edition of its A51 Terrain Park on its Scout trail today, with more than 20 features consisting of a box line, a rail line and a beginner line.

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