49 Degrees North announces opening date

Washington’s second-largest ski area has announced its opening day.

49 Degrees North, the 2,300-acre ski hill just east of Chewelah, plans to open for the winter season on Friday. The mountain plans to be open Fridays through Tuesdays until Dec. 20 when it will shift to seven days a week.

Mountain officials wrote in a news release that they expect five lifts to be running and that skiers and snowboarders will see “a significant amount of terrain available and some of the best early season snow surfaces in years.”

The release said recent snowstorms brought in heavy, wet snow and that more is expected. Low temperatures also allowed the mountain to fire up its snowmaking system, bolstering the base level snowpack.

Eric Bakken, the resort’s general manager, said in the release that they are being patient and waiting for the right conditions to open, and that doing so should allow the mountain to keep the lifts spinning.

“We want to do everything we can to create great conditions now and to get people out on the slopes as early as possible, but we also want to position ourselves to deliver a quality experience week after week, not just that instant gratification of being the first to open our doors,” Bakken said.

Lookout Pass Ski Area, on the Montana-Idaho border, was the first in the region to open last week. It welcomed skiers and snowboarders on Friday and Saturday but shuttered on Sunday, a day earlier than planned. The mountain expects to be open again this weekend.

Friday, though, will kick off a wave of ski hill openings in the Inland Northwest. Schweitzer, the ski hill near Sandpoint, also plans to open Friday. Silver Mountain, near Kellogg, plans to open the following day.

Mt. Spokane Ski and Snowboard Park’s official opening day is set for the weekend of Dec. 6, but the hill’s online conditions report notes that continued snowfall may allow the lifts to start spinning a week earlier.