How long will these California, Oregon ski parks stay open after record snowfall?

Ski parks are extending their season into mid-April as winter storms continue to dump snow on Northern California and Southern Oregon mountains.

While staff worked long hours clearing roads and grooming trails, this winter was a welcome change from last year’s miserably dry season, ski park managers said.

“This has been one of the first years we’ve been saying, ‘Too much snow,’” Mt. Shasta Ski Park spokesperson Grace Hornbeak said, laughing.

The snow just keeps on coming at Mt. Shasta, said meteorologist Marc Spilde at the National Weather Service’s Medford branch. There was 16 feet of snow sitting on top of Mt. Shasta’s Ski Bowl (7,617 feet) on Thursday afternoon.

Mt. Shasta Ski Park got 405 inches (33.8 feet) of snow this season, Hornbeak said. While some snow melted, there was still about 13.2 feet at the base on Thursday morning.

It’s a big improvement over 2022, she said, when the park closed on St. Patrick’s Day after a dismal season. With only 6.7 feet of snowfall all winter, “it was impressive we made it that long.”

Last year, Mt. Ashland Ski Area in southern Oregon didn’t fare much better, closing on March 26, 2022 ― almost three weeks earlier than planned due to lack of snow, the ski park’s General Manager Andrew Gast said.

Per usual, Mt. Ashland is a little dryer than Mt. Shasta, but this year, winter sports buffs have a mountain full of snow on which to play, Spilde said.

Thursday morning, Mt. Ashland Ski Area had 9 feet and 9 inches of snow piled up at the bottom of the mountain; 10.5 feet at the top, Gast said. “On this day last year, we had 2 feet, 10 inches on the bottom and 3 feet, 8 inches on the top.”

All that snow has ski parks pushing closing dates back as far as they can into April while still keeping parks staffed and guests coming. Mt. Ashland will stay open until April 23, two weeks past its usual April 9 closure. Mt. Shasta pushed its April 9 closure to April 16.

The season has been buzzing, Gast and Hornbeak said.

This year, with another month of snow sports yet to come, Mt. Ashland already shattered its all-time season record (106,003) with 108,217 guests visiting the park, Gast said. It was a big jump over 2022’s season total of 93,594 guests.

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While she didn't have an exact guest count on hand, Hornbeak said Mt. Shasta’s attendance has been going up; in part because the park has already been open more than 120 days ― 40 days longer than the 80-day season the ski park hopes for annually. “That doesn’t happen often,” she said.

While ballooning numbers of guests is a relief to ski park staff, longer seasons and more storms also mean longer hours for employees.

Snow levels are double to triple the park’s annual average, Hornbeak said. “That means double or triple the plowing, double or triple the shoveling, double or triple the grooming.”

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Keeping parking areas and Mt. Shasta's Ski Park Highway clear has been a bigger than usual task, she said. “We got so much snow, we ran out of places to put it.”

The ski park has five to eight employees operating machinery, but snowstorms coming one after the other equated to a lot of overtime. “We watched morale go from total excitement to ‘OK, enough. We’re ready for a break,’ ” Hornbeak said.

Staffing is the reason Hornbeak said Mt. Shasta Ski Park won’t push the date back further, although a vocal group of hardcore skiers and snowboarders are asking why not. Most employees have summer jobs lined up and therefore plan to leave the ski park in April.

Also, by April’s end the weather tends to warm up around Redding and other parts of the Sacramento Valley, Hornbeak said. When that happens, the ski park loses a lot of customers to summer recreation spots, like Lake Shasta and Whiskeytown.

But for now, business is booming, and more snow is on the way.

There’s about a 60% chance another foot will fall Monday night through Tuesday at Mt. Shasta, Spilde said.

At Mt. Ashland, “snowstorms have been very consistent, coming every few days, so all our trails are getting refreshed and keeping skiers and snowboarders happy, Gast said.

Jessica Skropanic is a features reporter for the Record Searchlight/USA Today Network. She covers science, arts, social issues and news stories. Follow her on Twitter @RS_JSkropanic and on Facebook. Join Jessica in the Get Out! Nor Cal recreation Facebook group. To support and sustain this work, please subscribe today. Thank you.

This article originally appeared on Redding Record Searchlight: Mt. Shasta, Mt. Ashland ski parks extend season after record snowfall