Local ski resorts delay opening due to insufficient snowfall

SPOKANE COUNTY, Wash. — Mt. Spokane Ski and Snowboard Park has delayed its opening to December 13 due to insufficient snowfall in November.

Mt. Spokane had planned to open Saturday but said it does not have the 18 inches of snow it needed. Monday’s snowfall helped, but the mountain still lacks adequate coverage for skiers to safely take on the slopes.

“We’re just waiting for Mother Nature, who loves to throw curveballs to give us some more snow,” said Jim Van Loben Sels, general manager at Mt. Spokane.

The resort said the biggest impact from the delay is on its more than 350 seasonal employees who will miss a week of pay. “They’re looking for work, and you’re asking them to wait another week. That has an impact on our employees,” Van Loben Sels said.

Van Loben Sels said the further we go into December, the bigger the financial impact will be. “When things are delayed, it makes it a little more dynamic—not stressful, but dynamic. You have to shift and adapt kind of on a daily basis.”

Local businesses feel the impact too. Rachel Harding, co-owner of Alpine Haus, said November was slower than usual.

“What we find is when there isn’t snow early, people wait a little bit, hold out, or even get nervous,” Harding said.

But Harding expects business to improve in December, once ski season gets going. “And then, it’s game time. We have lines out the door,” she said.

Harding suggests getting ski gear ready now before the season begins; otherwise, wait times could get long.

At Mt. Spokane, the team remains hopeful that the new December 13 start date goes smoothly. “It looks like Sunday will bring us some weather. We’ll be ready to roll as soon as there’s enough snow,” Van Loben Sels said.