If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. Those are words to live by for staff at Mount Washington Alpine Resort in this unpredictable 2013-14 winter season.
After experiencing record drought over the last few months, the mountain now finds itself in the middle of a serious winter weather blast. Over 80cms of new snow has blanketed the slopes since Sunday and well over 100cms of additional snow is predicted to fall through this weekend.
As a result, Mount Washington will once again reopen the resort for full winter operations beginning this Thursday, Feb. 13.
“We were joking that this is the second version, version 2.0 of our winter season,” explains resort spokesperson Brent Curtain. “And judging by the forecasts, version 2.0 is going to be much bigger and better than version 1.0.”
The drought-inducing ridge of high pressure that disabled incoming weather systems since the fall appears to have broken down for good. The weather that Islanders are used to experiencing this time of year, moderate to heavy rainfall along the coast and deep snow in the mountains, is finally back with a vengeance.
“We haven't seen the weather systems line up like this in the forecast since December 2012,” adds Curtain. “The accumulations we are seeing are significant – this is great news for the mountain and for those who love to play in the snow.”
Mount Washington planned to open up most of the front side of the mountain for alpine operations in addition to the Nordic Centre and new Tube Park. Night skiing is slated to begin Thursday evening.
“We're back to all systems go,” explains Don Sharpe, Director of Business Operations and Marketing. “Our plan all along was to reopen once the snow returned, so we're extremely happy to call our staff back to the mountain and continue with our plans for the second half of the season.”
The lifts began spinning at 9 a.m. today. "Winter version 2.0 is poised to be an upgrade from the last version and Island skiers and boarders couldn't be happier!" Curtain said.
For more information, webcams, the latest snow report and hours of operation visit mountwashington.ca.
– Mount Washington Alpine Resort