Twenty-seven degrees.
That is the optimum air temperature for snow making at Las Vegas Ski & Snowboard Resort. This year, however, chilly weather has been elusive, and so far it has cost the resort on Mount Charleston at least two weeks of business.
“We’re watching the weather up here,” Jim Seely, the resort’s marketing director, said last week as he and his staff geared up for opening weekend, twice delayed this season because of the weather — or more accurately, the lack of weather.
Across the country, the winter sports industry has increasingly struggled with unpredictable winters and decreasing snowpack, phenomena attributed to climate change.
The Environmental Protection Agency this year proposed the Clean Power Plan, designed to cut 30 percent of carbon pollution from power plants by 2030. The EPA says power plants are the largest source of carbon pollution in the country.
In support, Snowriders International, a nonprofit that promotes the winter sports industry, launched “Powder, Not Power Plants,” a campaign in support of the Clean Power Plan. Las Vegas Ski & Snowboard owner Powdr Corp. and more than 115 ski areas, businesses, governments and athletes signed letters in support of the campaign.
“We are working hard to protect a way of life,” Snowriders International Director Philip Huffeldt said.
Winter sports provide hundreds of thousands of jobs nationwide and help sustain businesses such as hotels, restaurants and gear suppliers. Recent winter sports seasons, on average, have been about 20 days shorter than they were in the 1970s.
“A large part of the economy depends on a stable environment and reliable snowpack,” Huffeldt said.
Las Vegas Ski & Snowboard Resort has about 200 workers at peak operation, Seely said. The resort has two dozen snowmaking machines, 400-plus acres and 30 runs and trails. Water is supplied by a 10 million-gallon reclamation facility on the mountain.
The resort’s typical season runs from late November through the first week of April.
Seventy percent of its business comes from Las Vegas. Thirty percent of its customers are tourists, the majority from Southern California.
The week after Christmas is particularly busy.
“That’s when we see lots of kids who got snowboards from Santa,” Seely said.
Let’s hope a snowy season is in full swing on Mount Charleston by the time the boards are under the Christmas trees.