STEVENS PASS — A lack of snow in the mountains has led the Stevens Pass ski area to suspend operations.
The resort made the announcement Saturday afternoon, posting a message on its website and a video on YouTube.
The warm, wet weather has been affecting winter activities throughout the Cascades. At Stevens Pass, workers had been hoarding what little snow there was to fill runs and turns on the slopes.
Chris Danforth, vice president of marketing for the company, said there were a number of bare spots, but still some snow.
“Six inches or a foot could give enough coverage to reopen,” Danforth said.
There was 25 inches of snow measured at the base of the mountain.
“This time of year, you wouldn’t be surprised to see more than 100 inches,” Danforth said.
He added that the number of visitors is down 50 percent from normal. The ski area usually gets about 400,000 visitors per season, he said.
The coffee shop at the ski area remains open, but otherwise operations have been reduced to a skeleton crew.
When in full operation, the resort has close to 800 employees, including weekend staff and instructors, Danforth said.
He added that he hopes the season will turn out more like the 2004-05 season, which also was dry and forced an early suspension. But later snows returned and the resort saw three more weeks of business, he said.
Chris Winters: 425-374-4165; cwinters@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @Chris_At_Herald.
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