Due to insufficient snow, Arctic Valley Ski Area won’t be opening on December 14th. Though we got off to a strong start with some decent early snowstorms in October, we’ve had minimal snow in the past month, paired with lots of above freezing temperatures and even some rain. Realistically, we’re looking for a couple feet of new snow before we can open. We’ve gotten that amount all in one big storm before – like September 2021 or Thanksgiving 2023 – but it may also take a bunch of smaller storms to get there.
The good news is that the lifts are ready to go, we’re nearly fully hired, and staff training is ongoing. Though we will still need to do some mountain setup, we’re ready to take advantage of the snow as soon as we have enough.
Want to keep an eye on how the snowpack is doing at Arctic Valley? Check out arcticvalley.org/conditions, where you can see our webcam.
Snow Tubing Open
In the meantime, snow tubing will open for the season on Thursday, December 12th, and we have lots of tickets available for the first week! If you’re a season pass holder, tubing is free, and regular members get discounted tickets. We hope you can come up and enjoy some time at Arctic Valley this weekend, even if it isn’t skiing & riding.
Season Pass Benefits
Also for our season pass holders, take advantage of the non-profit ski area exchange program! Your season pass gets you three free days at lots of other non-profit resorts, including Hilltop which opened last week. Other participating resorts are Skeetawk, Eagle Crest in Juneau (which also opened last week), Bogus Basin in Idaho, Loup Loup Ski Bowl, Mt Spokane, Hurricane Ridge, and Echo Valley in Washington, and Mt Ashland in Oregon. Pick up your season pass 1pm to 7pm Thursday-Friday and 11am to 7pm Saturday-Sunday.
Weather Challenges
Anchorage (and Arctic Valley) did well with snow in October and early November. Temperatures generally stayed below (or around) freezing, and we had pretty decent coverage in early November. Lots of backcountry skiers came up and took advantage of our pre-season uphill access to get some great turns in.
Unfortunately that good start to winter in October turned to above freezing temperatures in early November, which delayed our snowmaking start until November 10th. We had a pretty good run then until November 20th when a huge inversion warmed us up all the way to 40 degrees – while it remained well below freezing in Anchorage (see images below). It didn’t cool down again until Monday the 25th, and stayed below freezing for a week, until Monday Dec 2nd. Then we had to shut down snowmaking again, instead of running it through Wednesday as planned.
In the weather station data above, you can also see that we’ve had several wind events in November. Unfortunately the predominant wind direction has been from the North, which tends to strip snow from us instead of adding it.
Since then, it hasn’t really dropped below freezing, so we’ve been doing our best to build the snow tubing park, despite less than ideal snow conditions. We did manage to get three lanes built so far, and are working on lane 4. Looking ahead, we’re hoping to do a bit more snowmaking to cover the T-bar and Chair 2 base area late this week – hopefully starting Thursday afternoon or Friday morning.
What to do while we wait for a weather change? Do your snow dances, ask Ullr for some help, visit Summit Ski Co, The Hoarding Marmot, or Blue & Gold to get your gear tuned up, and keep an eye out for updates!
