“We’ll have to turn the mountain into a beach,” said Pierce. “We know we’re competing with lots of other interests, and people are so ready for summer. So we create a real festival atmosphere to draw them in.”
Plus, there’s one big advantage you may not have considered: great tanning. “Snow reflects better than anything!” joked Pierce. He speculated that Squaw may finally break Sochi’s long-held record for most bikini-clad skiers on a mountain.
The Bigger Picture
Skiing on the Fourth of July has been done in Squaw before, but only as a single-day stunt. Even Wirth, the resort’s CEO, called this climate “incredible and unprecedented” on a scale that was being taken from “historic to biblical.”
Erdman attributes the weather to climate change, which is creating more extreme and frequent shifts from drought to flood and vice versa. “It puts a lot of stress on water managers, both in public government and private industry,” he said. If the snow melts gradually, the water will continue to replenish reservoirs that were deeply in need of refilling. If a hot streak melts it too quickly, though, some of that runoff may create flooding or spillover—not ideal.
For now, the extra snow is being hailed as a boon across the board. Said Erdman: “To have the meltwater from all that snow recharge those reservoirs is spectacular news—about as good a scenario as you can get, for both skiers and also folks who are worried about their water supply.”
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.