Snowmaking at Schweitzer. // Photo courtesy of Schweitzer Mountain Resort.
Schweitzer Mountain Resort plans to open Friday (forecast right now if 90% chance of snow). Hopefully the rest of the local ski resorts won’t be far behind. Here’s a press release with the details:
Schweitzer Mountain Resort to Open Friday
Musical Chairs opening with snowmaking efforts moving to Midway Run
Sandpoint, ID – Schweitzer Mountain Resort will open on Friday December 12th. Musical Chairs, the lift servicing the lower mountain terrain will operate and the half mile long Happy Trails run will open. Opening is possible due to Schweitzer’s snowmaking system producing a man-made snow base which was recently enhanced by several inches of natural snowfall. More chairlifts and runs will open as soon as conditions allow.
Snowmaking efforts will now focus on Midway Run, utilizing the new system installed last summer. “Thanks to our snowmaking efforts and the big storm that is forecasted for this weekend, we can look forward to opening more of the mountain soon,” said Schweitzer’s CEO Tom Chasse. “The early part of the winter was unfortunately pretty dry, and snowmaking is key to opening Musical Chairs on Friday.”
Schweitzer’s snowmaking installation is the most energy efficient and low impact snowmaking system available with the latest proven technology. These high tech automated snowmaking guns are able to produce 25% more snow for the amount of energy consumed than other types of systems. They sense when conditions make snowmaking possible and turn on automatically, and also turn off automatically to conserve energy when conditions are not ideal.
Musical Chairs is scheduled to operate from 9am to 3:45pm with reduced price $20 lift tickets on Friday. More information about open runs and lifts will be available as it develops at schweitzer.com and on their snow phone at 208 263 9562.
