|
|
Anchorage residents dreaming of a white Thanksgiving got their wish when a storm on the eve of the holiday dropped about 5 inches of powder around town.
Snowfall varied from as little as 4.4 inches at the National Weather Service's Sand Lake office to 7.5 inches in Girdwood. Still, winter is off to a weak start in Anchorage, which would normally have seen 10 more inches of snow by now, according to Weather Service numbers. As of Turkey Day, Anchorage had officially gotten 7.2 inches of snow, compared with the normal 17.8 inches it should have by then. But the fresh snowfall was a boon to skiers and snowboarders looking to carve turns at Hilltop Ski Area, which opened two runs Nov. 14 with the help of man-made snow, said Rick Cramer, general operations manager at Hilltop. The area is still making more snow, however, to get the rest of its runs open, he said. "We're going to look about the possibility of Brown Bear for (today)," Cramer said. "We've had some snow that we had already made on that run. We just need to get over there with the snowcat and see if we can push it around and make it good coverage." Down in Girdwood, the Alyeska Ski Resort had Chair 3, Chair 4 and both magic carpets open to skiers. The top of the mountain remained closed to skiing, however, and the tram is operating only for sightseeing or dining atop the mountain. The resort was reporting between 7 and 9 inches of fresh powder on the mountain from Wednesday night's snowfall, with about 10 inches of snow plus man-made powder at the base and about 35 inches midway up and at the summit. Arctic Valley, which needs about 3 feet of snow to open its slopes, remains closed until precipitation picks up. On the Kenai Peninsula, Chugach National Forest officials opened Turnagain Pass to snowmachines on Wednesday, though all the other areas remain closed because of insufficient snowfall. Avalanche danger in the area was moderate, with human-triggered slides possible, and conditions could worsen with rain, significant new snow or wind, said Carl Skustad of the Avalanche Information Center. "The facts are that the snowpack is not ready for aggressive skiing, snowboarding, or snowmachining yet," Skustad said in a statement Thursday. "The snowpack is still young; give it some time to adjust over the next couple weeks and next couple of storms." The National Weather Service was calling for another round of snowfall in Anchorage tonight, with additional accumulations of up to 2 inches.