After 2 delays, Arizona Snowbowl to open before Thanksgiving
Nov 20, 2017, 8:19 AM | Updated: 11:35 am
(Instagram Photo)
PHOENIX — After two warm-weather delays, Arizona Snowbowl will finally open for the season Tuesday, a spokesman for the facility said.
The Monday announcement said one lift was open, the Agassiz, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m, for daily use. Intermediate trails Midway Catwalk, Logjam, Wild Turkey, and Round Up will be ready. No beginner areas were available.
“… our crews have taken advantage of every cold night to make as much snow as possible,” general manager J.R. Murray said in a statement.
In August, operators of the Flagstaff-area site originally said the 80th-anniversary ski season would begin Nov. 10.
Snowmaking capabilities at the site can cover 65 percent of the place but by early November, continued balmy temperatures forced the bowl to push the date to the next week.
Highs remained in the low-to-mid 60s in the area the week after that. Another postponement followed Nov. 15.
Murray said that mountain crews had been “working around the clock making snow and grooming the slopes” to make sure there was enough snow to “open one lift with skiing from top to bottom.”
Last year, Snowbowl visitors enjoyed the earliest opening in nearly 40 years on Nov. 19 and latest closing.
The season lasted into early May after the biggest total snowfall (over 27 feet) in a dozen years.