Where’s the snow? Mt. Spokane not fully open yet

MEAD, Wash. – It’s been a slow start to the ski season at Mt. Spokane. The general manager says they didn’t get enough snow yet to fully open the mountain.

“We always want more snow at the beginning of any season,“ said Brad McQuarrie, the general manager of Mt. Spokane Ski and Snowboard Park.

This year the mountain opened after Thanksgiving. For the last five years, McQuarrie said it’s opened around Thanksgiving Day.

On Thursday, there was about three feet of snow at the top of the mountain, and less than a foot at the bottom. For avid skier Heidi Rust, Thursday was her first ski run of the season.

“We’re pleasantly surprised,“ she said.

She’s surprised to see all the snow and all the people on the mountain. While there were many skiing, snowboarding and tubing the day after Christmas, McQuarrie says it’s half of what they normally see at the mountain.

Of the six chair lifts the park has, only four were open Thursday.

“Some years have been worse than this. You take it as you get,“ McQuarrie said. “Skiers kind of know they’re at the whim of Mother Nature, so you have to just take it when you get it.“

This time last year, McQuarrie said the mountain had more snow than it does now.

That didn’t matter to Rust, though. With less snow and fewer people, she still enjoyed skiing down the mountain.

“We don’t mind. It feels like we own the place. We’ve got about eight to ten people in our party and we see people everywhere we go and if we lose each other, we find each other. It’s a nice day,“ Rust said.

McQuarrie said he’s not worried, because the weather can change pretty quickly. He’s optimistic the rest of the mountain and trails will be opened by this weekend.

You can take a look at the mountain’s snow conditions on their website here.