Another La Niña winter may mean another epic ski season

With the possible exception of “cerveza gratis,” there isn’t a Spanish phrase Northwest skiers and snowboarders like hearing more than La Niña.

Loosely translated, La Niña means skiers should be in the white and ski areas should be in the black this winter. So powerful is this weather phenomenon that when it converged with a dismal economy last winter it gave ski areas a natural bailout.

This year, forecasters are predicting the first back-to-back La Niña winters since 2000 and 2001, making ski-area operators deliriously happy.

“It means momentum,” said John Kircher, president and general manager of Crystal Mountain. “Momentum is important when it comes to building the industry.”

Good snow years are instrumental to ski areas accumulating the revenue they need to fulfill their development plans. And, just as important Kircher says, skiers and snowboarders are more likely to stay in state.

“They start to develop the habit of staying here to ski when we have a year like last year,” Kircher said. “Just like in bad years they start developing the habit of going elsewhere to ski.”

Last season, Washington ski areas had 2.1 million visitors, fourth-most in state history, according to the Pacific Northwest Ski Area Association. Oregon had its best season with more than 2 million visitors.

Even though Washington and Oregon have unemployment rates of more than 9 percent and the economy is struggling, Scott Kaden of the ski area association anticipates another good year.

“Skiers are passionate about their sport,” Kaden said. “No matter how tough times are, if the snow is good, they find a way to get to the mountain.”

La Niñas are created by the cooling of the Pacific Ocean’s equatorial waters. Typically this means drought in places such as Texas or Oklahoma, spring flooding in the Northern Plains and wetter and colder winters than normal in the Northwest.

However, while winters often are epic for skiers and snowboarders, the snow often is late in arriving.

“In fact, we’ve had three challenging Januarys in a row,” Kaden said. “If we have a good January, it will be really interesting to see what we are talking about. It could bode very well.”

Kircher, who also oversees operations at the Summit at Snoqualmie, says running ski areas is like being “a farmer who doesn’t get government subsidies.”

“You are at the mercy of the weather,” he said.

So good winters move his ski areas and others around the state closer toward meeting their plans for upgrades and expansions.

At Crystal Mountain, a new wastewater-treatment facility is in the works for next season. But the ski area also hopes to build the state’s first hotel with ski-in, ski-out access as soon as 2014.

The ski area also has approval to replace the old lift serving the double-diamond slopes of Campbell Basin and build a lift in Bullion Basin. Dates haven’t been set for either project.

The four-season resort also wants to build new hiking trails off the 6,872-foot summit, which is serviced by an 11-month-old gondola.

At the Summit at Snoqualmie, the ski area would like to build a new Silver Fir Lodge at Summit Central as soon as next season, Kircher said.

The Summit also has approval to replace several lifts and add night skiing on the popular but challenging International run at Alpental.

Stevens Pass unveiled a new lift-served, downhill mountain biking course in October and plans to add more trails next summer.

“It’s pretty exciting, all of the new opportunities that are in the works as ski areas work on their master development plans,” Kaden said. “It’s super hard to predict what (Northwest skiing) will look like a decade from now because we are so dependent on snow.

“But ski areas are taking the steps to prepare for the growing demand.”

And every good snow year helps.

Craig Hill: 253-597-8497

craig.hill@thenewstribune.com

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