Lack of snow forces local ski area to close early

A lack of snow forced the Turner Mountain Ski Area to close, cutting the ski season a month short and prompting the annual Crazy Days celebration to be canceled for the first time in over a decade.

“We’re about a month ahead of schedule snowpack-wise of where we should be,” said Bruce Zwang, president of Turner’s board of directors.

The board made the final decision to close on Monday evening.

A tradition spanning more than four decades, Crazy Days is usually held in early to mid-March. It’s rare for Turner to close before then.

“It’s happened years and years ago, but probably about 12 years,” Zwang recalled.

December snow allowed Turner Mountain to open Jan. 2, a week later than board members had hoped, and the mild winter yielded little snowfall after that.

“We were getting 1-3 inches a week if we were lucky,” Zwang said. “We didn’t have any large snowfalls after the first week of January, which is very unusual for us.”

Though the season was short, Zwang said conditions were good and groomers were able to make the most of the little snowfall.

In addition, Turner saw more tourists. After being featured last year in Skiiing Magazine as an excellent resort to rent for the day, Turner was rented out on four occasions, compared to the usual one or two in a season.

“In the past two weeks, we hosted a busload of folks from Canada and from Sandpoint,” Zwang said, “and we’re getting commitments and reservations for dates for next year.”

What’s even more exciting, Zwang said, is that some people that rented the mountain had never been to Turner before and were already making plans to return, either by themselves or as a group.