This week’s balmy weather finally proved to be too much for the Stevens Pass ski resort, which closed for the season on Wednesday because of a lack of snow.
Rain on Sunday night and Monday morning, warm temperatures on Tuesday and more rain on Wednesday turned the last bit of snow left on the mountain into slush.
“It’s been the lowest snow year that we’ve seen in 54 years,” said John Gifford, Stevens Pass general manager. “When you deal with Mother Nature you have to take what she gives you. This year she didn’t give us much.”
The ski resort was able to scrape out a 45-day season, far short of its usual 110 to 120 days but more than most ski resorts in Western Washington were able to offer, Gifford said.
“A lot of people thought it was amazing that we got what we got,” he said.
The ski area received about 130 inches of snow this winter, only 30 percent of the 450 inches it gets in a typical year.
The resort had been limping along for about a month, surviving on 22 inches of snow that fell in early February.
No snow has fallen since.
“Now we’re just getting ready for next year,” Gifford said. “We’ll be OK next year; they say you never get two years in a row like this.”
The ski resort cut back on the number of people it hired and will do less maintenance and construction work because of the lack of revenue.
The word went out to the Stevens Pass faithful about 11 a.m. Wednesday, Gifford said. An e-mail brought season ticket holders the bad news.
“We gave it our best run, but the warm temperatures and rain have finally beaten us,” the e-mail said. “We are thankful that we were able to run the lifts as much as we did this season and thank all of you for your support, encouragement and patronage.”
Reporter Lukas Velush: 425-339-3449 or lvelush@heraldnet.com.
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