This story has been updated with additional information from Eaglecrest General Manager Craig Cimmons.
Eaglecrest Ski Area plans to open Saturday as originally scheduled, but with only the short Porcupine chairlift on its beginner hill operating. On the plus side, people bringing a donation for the resort’s canned food drive during the weekend can get a lift ticket for $11.
The Porcupine lift is scheduled to be open from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, according to an announcement posted Wednesday at Eaglecrest’s website. Discounted lift tickets will be $22, with 50% for people donating items to the food drive on behalf of the Southeast Alaska Food Bank.
“With a limited base of natural snowfall on the lower mountain and continuous rain in the forecast, we will not be opening the upper mountain this weekend,” the website notes.
With no snow in the extended forecast at the ski area it’s not possible to estimate when the full mountain might open, Eaglecrest General Manager Craig Cimmons said in an interview Wednesday night.
“It’s impossible to put a date on that because we need another round of real good natural snow and we need a round of cold weather so we can make snow so we can get the base of the chairlifts open,” he said. The reason both are needed is “because if it snows again it’s going to snow heavier at the top of the mountain so we have to supplement that by making snow at the base of the chairlifts.”
Last year’s opening was delayed until Dec. 20, also due to warm and otherwise uncooperative weather.
Eaglecrest — and much of the rest of Southeast Alaska — received three or more feet of snow during two major multiday snowstorms during the past two weeks. However, warming temperatures that set in Monday turned the precipitation to rain that is falling steadily in Juneau and forecast to continue through at least early next week, with temperatures in the 40s much of that time, according to the National Weather Service Juneau.
Cimmons said there was a snow level of more than 40 inches at the top of Eaglecrest at one point, but as of Wednesday the situation is rather bleak.
“Patrol went around and looked, and it looks like anywhere between like 10 to 30 inches of snow probably melted,” he said. So I mean, really, the shortest version is practically all of the natural snow that fell is gone. The only thing left is the snow we made.”
Eaglecrest’s website notes crews put in “12 days of around-the-clock snowmaking” that has resulted in enough to cover both of the main runs in the Porcupine lift area.
Facilities at the mountain such as the ticket window and rental shop are scheduled to open at 8:30 a.m. during the weekend. Eaglecrest Grill and Mountain Lift Coffee will be open, but Pittman’s Pub will be closed.
The snow bus is not scheduled to begin operating until Dec. 14.
Once the full mountain is open operations will continue to be somewhat limited due to the shutdown of the Black Bear chairlift, one of two lifts to the top of the mountain, for the entire season due to mechanical problems. While all of the resort’s terrain is accessible from the Ptarmigan lift that remains in operation, officials have acknowledged lines will likely be longer and people will have to walk further at the top to reach the terrain on the east side of the mountain.
Eaglecrest is scheduled to operate this season until Sunday, April 13. The regular schedule is Wednesday through Sunday, with daily operations over Christmas and spring breaks. It will also be open during the extended Martin Luther King Day and Presidents’ Day weekends.
• Contact Mark Sabbatini at mark.sabbatini@juneauempire.com
