Winter is finally coming to an end at California ski resorts
Last winter dumped so much snow on California’s peaks that at least one resort raised the possibility of staying open all summer, allowing skiers to ride the lifts until next winter’s snowfall.
But the hot weather during the last few weeks is finally putting an end to California’s extra-long ski season.
Mammoth Mountain, the state’s most popular ski resort, announced it will close Aug. 6, making this the resort’s second-longest season. The resort in the Sierra Nevada mountains still has 6 inches of snow at the main lodge and 35 inches at the summit, with three of 28 lifts in operation.
Squaw Valley, the California resort northwest of Lake Tahoe that raised the possibility of saying open year-round, ended its season July 15, marking the resort’s longest season.
The 2016-17 winter created one of the largest snowpacks in California history, so big that the Central Sierra Nevada snow accumulation was larger than the previous four years combined, according to NASA data.
When the ski season stretched into the summer months, skiers and snowboarders hit the California slopes in shorts and tank tops.
Squaw Valley had so much snow this winter — about 60 feet in accumulated snowfall — that the resort’s chief executive, Andy Wirth, predicted the resort could operate for 550 days, through next season.
That would have been unprecedented. Over the last 50 years, Squaw Valley has operated beyond July 4 only four times.
Instead, this season amounted to a record 200 days of operation.
Mammoth Mountain has stayed open beyond July 4 three times. Its longest season was in 1994-95 when it opened in early October and closed Aug. 14.
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