Snowy stakes

The warm winter weather hasn’t made the season of snow a wonderland so far.

There is snow on the slopes of Lookout Pass, but how much varies a great deal. 

Matt Sawyer of Lookout Pass Ski and Recreation said conditions on the mountain from base to summit are anywhere between 7 to 32 inches in depth.

“It’s early season conditions for us, still. The trails are fairly well covered, but we need more snow, everybody does,” Sawyer said.

Some winter weather may be in the works at last. A storm bringing “impactful, bringing widespread snow to both valleys and mountains this weekend,” is on the horizon according to a Thursday afternoon announcement by the National Weather Service.

“It’s been a very disappointing season because of the weather. We’re down considerably and I feel like the town is feeling it as well. We’re hanging in there and we do see some light on the horizon. We’re sliding, so if people want to slide, we’ve got sliding for them to do,” Sawyer said.

Gus Colburn, Silver Mountain’s director of marketing said the Kellogg recreation venue is sitting at about 14 inches of snow at the lodge and 31 inches at the summit.

“We’re excited to have snow in the forecast. Snow levels are lower than we would like them to be, but we’re trying to make the best out of it here. A lot of people were here for Christmas break and stayed in the Lodge and even though the snow wasn’t what they expected, they still had a great time,” Colburn said.

With the tubing trails in rotation and the water park as a viable option, he said Silver Mountain has plenty to keep people active even when the snow scene isn't ideal. This year has marked a change in the recent trends, but Colburn said sometimes that’s just how it works out in the industry. 

“The past few winters have been what’s known as La Niña years, which means better winters for us up here. Those were all just predictions and anything can happen,” Colburn said.

Incoming president of the Wallace Chamber of Commerce Brenda Johnson said the warmer weather has stretched out the tourist flow they experience between when the bike trail closes for the winter and winter recreation begins. But many families who had planned their vacations prior to the warmer weather were still in town even if they weren’t heading up to the mountain, she said.

Machine grooming of the slopes at both Lookout Pass and Silver Mountain has helped stretch out occasional thin snow coverage and some trail obstacles, but a fresh coat of snow would be a boon for the winter recreation industry in the Silver Valley. 

Sawyer noted that the snow they’ve received is holding up due to the temperature not drifting far from the mid-30s and firming up overnight, which Sawyer noted “stopped the bleed” of the snowpack during the warmer weather in late December.

The lack of consistent snowfall has kept operations at a stalemate as the temperature fluctuations haven’t been extreme, but have only been holding the line.

The Free Ski School at Lookout also had to postpone the first class of the season from Saturday, Jan. 6 to Saturday, Jan. 13. The classes use protective barriers built out of snow to rein in the beginners, but without enough extra snow to create the staging area, the ski school opted to wait for more favorable conditions.

As an instructor and a member of the ski school’s board of directors, Tammy Nusz said she was sorry they’ve had to delay the first lesson, but that it was necessary to ensure that safety remained the primary variable in their considerations.

The free program has been going strong for eight decades in teaching kids 6-17 to learn how to ski and snowboard.

“Snow falling in your backyard in Spokane or Missoula or Coeur d’Alene certainly gets people excited and they come to the mountain when that happens,” Sawyer said.

In the meantime, Sawyer is hoping that Lookout Pass can pack on the powder to give folks a reason to hit the slopes.

“That would be a blessing right now,” Sawyer said.

For more information about the Free Ski School or to find more updates, visit https://skilookout.com/famous-free-ski-school.

    Some winter recreation enthusiasts were so eager to hit the slopes at Silver Mountain that they were lined up as early as 5 a.m. on opening day to secure their spot in line for the first chair lift.