After latest opening on record, Mt. Hood Meadows to close early

Like resorts across Oregon and the West, Meadows has been grappling with poor snowpack, largely because of warmer temperatures. About 232 inches of snow have fallen to date, but rainstorms often followed blizzards. The resort also missed a potentially massive boost from December’s atmospheric river events because it never got cold enough, as previously reported by Columbia Gorge News.

Mount Hood’s snow water equivalent, a critical drought indicator that represents the amount of liquid water in snowpack, sat at 20.9 inches on April 6 — about 39% of the historical median. Since the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service started recording the data in 1980, only two seasons have hit lower marks come spring, pointing to a 10-year pattern: 2004 and 2014.

Despite receiving eight inches of fresh powder early last week, temperatures got up to 60 degrees during Full Sail Brewing’s Banked Slalom event over the weekend. The resort’s lower-elevation area served by the Hood River Express lift has been closed, and as of last Friday, Pack wasn’t confident that Heather Canyon would remain open for more than a day or two.

Meadows made the closure announcement on March 27 and passed its 100th day of operations that all guests are guaranteed, otherwise refunds kick in, on April 3. Pack emphasized that, in the interest of transparency, he put the message out early. The resort typically stays open until the beginning of May.

“I wanted to give our guests as much notice as possible, as well as our team members,” he said. “We have 1,400 employees here, so if all of a sudden on a Friday, I say we’re closing on a Sunday, that really impacts a ton of people.”

And with just a handful of days where the resort was working at maximum capacity, those seasonal employees have already seen reduced hours.

“When we don’t have many guests, we don’t have as many ski school people and we don’t have many of our restaurants open,” Pack said. “You’ve got to match your operations to the volume to see anything that makes sense in this business.”

With the early end, Meadows had to cancel its pride celebration and pond skim. But Mazot Fest, a fundraiser for their avalanche dogs sponsored by Everybody’s Brewing, is still a go April 10-11, and Pack’s hoping for a rebound year next season.