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With several inches of fresh powder on the ground in the North Fork, Sleeping Giant Ski Area was finally able to open this past week for the season. More than 10 inches of the fluffy white stuff fell …
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With several inches of fresh powder on the ground in the North Fork, Sleeping Giant Ski Area was finally able to open this past week for the season. More than 10 inches of the fluffy white stuff fell the day after Christmas, allowing the lodge to get its final runs open.
“The snow dances worked,” the lodge reported shortly after a foot of snow dropped on the slopes.
It received a total of 18 inches of snow over the Christmas weekend and another 5 inches Wednesday. Freezing temperatures also makes it possible for Sleeping Giant to add more of a base with its new snow-making equipment.
“It just keeps coming down,” said lodge owner Nick Piazza.
He had originally hoped to open by Thanksgiving, but his more realistic goal was the first Saturday of December. With no snow on the ground they rescheduled to open Dec. 16, but again had to move the date back while waiting for the weather to change. “We were resigned to having no coverage until the new year,” he said.
But, if you like freezing temperatures and snow-slickened roads, you were in heaven during the Christmas weekend. Nearly 3 feet of snow has fallen in the past two weeks at the lodge. The weekly Department of Agriculture snowpack report shows improvement across most of Wyoming, including big changes in local basins.
The snowpack in the Yellowstone Basin jumped 20%, from 76% of median to 96% in one week, though it is still behind 2020 measurements by 14% and down slightly from 2019 figures, the report shows. The Bighorn, Shoshone and Wind River basins all showed improvement this week.
Currently, Wyoming’s snowpack (snow water equivelant) is 88% of median with a basin high of 111% in the Madison Headwaters and Little Snake areas, and a basin low of 31% in the South Platte Basin.
Snow is in the forecast for the North Fork through the end of the year. Sleeping Giant plans to open the snow bar and night skiing for the first time this season on New Year’s Eve. The lodge is closed on Saturday, Jan. 1, but reopens Sunday when a warm-up is in the forecast. Saturday highs are forecast to be 10 degrees and will increase to 32 degrees by Sunday, according to the National Weather Service.
