Alpine skiing and snowboarding will return to Southcentral on Friday when Hilltop Ski Area opens for the season at 3 p.m.
Alyeska Ski Resort in Girdwood plans to open on Thanksgiving Day, and the Arctic Valley Ski Area, which has no snowmaking, awaits a deeper natural cover.
"Right now, pretty much 100 percent of our snow is man-made," said Hilltop CEO Steve Remme, who has seven snow-making guns working. "We'll have four to six inches coverage on everything so we can groom it properly with the tiller."
He expects about a third of Hilltop will open, in particular the Caribou run.
"We're making tons of snow, and we'll keep making snow as long as we can," said Remme, who noted that snow-makers can churn out twice as much when it's zero degrees outdoors rather than 20 degrees.
However, the National Weather Service is calling for a warm-up by Thursday and a snow-rain mixture for Friday, when temperatures should reach the mid-30s.
"For an opening weekend Saturday, 600 is a good crowd," said Remme, who estimated that Hilltop had sold 350 season tickets. He said that breaks to down to 60 percent boarders and 40 percent skiers, though more and more of the latter seem to be showing up.
Until Hilltop completes snowmaking, its snowboarding terrain park will remain closed.
Push to put fisheries meeting on Kenai Peninsula
Gov. Bill Walker and a trio of Kenai Peninsula mayors are urging the Alaska Board of Fisheries to move its 2017 meeting on Upper Cook Inlet fishing from Anchorage to the Peninsula.
"It will have been 18 years since a meeting was held in the area where much of the fishing takes place," Walker wrote to board chairman Tom Kluberton and his colleagues. "I recognize that other users live in Anchorage, the Matanuska-Susitna Valley and throughout other parts of Alaska.
"However, as a courtesy to those who live and work and fish on the Peninsula, there should be an opportunity to participate in a board of fisheries meeting close to home on some occasion."
In its letter, the Peninsula's mayoral trio — borough mayor Mike Navarre, Soldotna mayor Pete Sprague and Kenai mayor Pat Porter — offered to cut the cost of the gathering scheduled for Feb. 23-March 8 by "providing a venue … and providing coffee, tea and water at no cost" — a savings they estimated at more than $61,000.
"Not having reasonable, periodic access to the BOF process is simply unfair to the large population of Alaskans residing on the Kenai Peninsula," they wrote.
By meeting in Anchorage, however, board members could also witness the ceremonial start of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race on March 4 in downtown Anchorage.
Iditarod freebie for teens
Young mushers who compete in the Jr. Iditarod the weekend before the big race will be able to race for free if their entry is turned in by Friday.
After Nov. 20, the entry fee will be $150. After Dec. 15, it goes up to $250.
The Jr. Iditarod can be a lucrative enterprise for boys and girls under 18. This year's winner, Kevin Harper of Wasilla, earned $6,000 in scholarship money. Even sixth-place finisher Marianna Mallory of Chugiak collected $2,000.
Contact Mike Campbell at mcampbell@alaskadispatch.com