Squaw Valley picture by Hank de Vre
As reported on J2ski.com a few weeks ago, a record number of US resorts plan to open in a few hours time for snowsports on Independence Day, July 4th, following record snowfall last Autumn, Winter and spring in the West of the country.
11 ski areas in five states are known to be opening today.
California has the most resorts re-opening, up around Lake Tahoe, including Alpine Meadows, Donner Summit, Squaw Valley, Kirkwood and Sugarbowl. Mammoth Mountain to the south has already opened. A 'heat advisory' for dangerously hot conditions in the San Francisco Bay are from the US Weather Service for today may send more people up to the snowline.
Alpine Meadows has only opened on the 4th of July once before in its 50 year history.
In Utah the options are snowbird and Snowbasin. Snowbird received 95 inches (nearly 2.5 metres) more snow this winter than its previous record 688 inches.
The three other choices are Timberline in Oregon, Arapahoe Basin in Colorado and Crystal Mountain in Washington State.
Most of the resorts are expected to be calling it a day for the 2010-11 season after today. Although most of the Tahoe resorts re-opened for this weekend only, Arapahoe Basin, Crystal Mountain Snowbasin and Snowbird have all been open at weekends since the end of the main ski season in April and Mammoth and Timberline have been open daily since last autumn.
Only Crystal Mountain has announced it plans to stay open next weekend at least and timberline usually stays open to mid-September only as North America's only all-summer-long summer snowsports resort. Most other areas, including Arapahoe Basin and Snowbird, have announced today is the last day for snowsports. A Basin last opened for July 4th snowsports in 1997.
North of the border Whistler is the only open option for skiers and boarders with a few weeks left of its summer skiing schedule on the Blackcomb glacier. It celebrated Canada day last Friday, July 1st.