Ski season opens at Turner Mountain

With the sun shining and temperatures dipping below zero at the top, Turner Mountain Ski Area opened for the season Monday morning.

“We’ve got fantastic powder and great snow conditions,” said Bruce Zwang, President of Kootenai Winter Sports, the non-profit organization that operates the ski area.

Turner Mountain reported a depth of 24 inches at the base, due primarily to heavy snowfall over the weekend.

The opening of Turner Mountain was not delayed by the fire that destroyed the groomer shed earlier this month. “It has been a major setback and made things a little more difficult,” he said. “But it’s not stopped us nor has it slowed us down.”

The shed was a total loss, although the large groomers were saved due to the quick response of Turner Mountain volunteers. The value of the tools and specialty parts lost in that blaze has not yet been determined by insurance investigators.

Zwang said resort typically opens the weekend kids are released from school for the holiday break, but snow conditions just didn’t allow for it this year. Even so, the resort is only a week behind the normal opening schedule and will remain open daily until Jan. 4, when kids return to school after the holidays.

“We’ve got a lot of smiling faces and the parking lot is full,” Zwang said. “It’s a really great day at Turner. It was a great day of skiing and the sun was shining all day.”

After that, the mountain will be open Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays from 9:30 a.m. until 3:45 p.m.