Schweitzer to open Saturday

SANDPOINT - Schweitzer Mountain Resort will open for the season at 9 a.m. Saturday and operate Saturday and Sunday during the holiday weekend.

Terrain will be available for all ability levels with the Basin Express and Musical Chairs lifts open. These two chairs are scheduled to operate from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. during opening weekend. The resort will close down mid-week and then re-open on Friday, Nov. 30 for the weekend, weather permitting.

For the weekend, lift tickets will be available at the reduced rate of $40 for everyone except for children 6 and younger who ski free. For those individuals who only wish to ski on Musical Chairs, ticket prices will be $25. Schweitzer's Sunday-Friday passholders may also ski this Saturday at no charge.

Sunday Solution will be available on Sunday, half-day tickets are only $25 if purchased in advance online, or $35 at the ticket window.

Schweitzer has received 44 inches of natural snow so far this season, with 19 of those inches coming in the past three days.

Forecasts before opening day are looking good for additional snowfall. Skiing and snowboarding is recommended on groomed trails as early season conditions exist with variable snowpack.

The opening is possible in part due to Schweitzer's snowmaking system installed in 2008 and completed in 2009 which has aided the current conditions with the help of ideal weather. This month alone, Schweitzer converted 2.8 million gallons of water into snow.

That water had been collected in spring runoff and stored in a mountain-top reservoir. That amount of water equates to roughly 14 inches of snow on Midway and Happy Trails. Snowmaking will continue to operate as conditions allow.

Neither Lookout Pass nor Silver Mountain expects to open this weekend.

As of Wednesday, Lookout had a 4-inch base at the lodge, 13 inches on top, while Silver had 8 inches mid-mountain, 10 inches on top.