By: It’s probably not hard to have noticed all of the many rain related posts among Phoenix area blogs over the past couple of weeks. Seems you couldn’t click past a single one of the many fine Arizona bloggers that didn’t reference all of the rain we’ve had at least once.
Rain in December, has an added benefit beyond just the much needed water for Arizona: snow in the high country. If you are reading this from somewhere outside Arizona, you may be surprised to learn that Arizona has 2 significant ski areas: Arizona Snowbowl and Sunrise Park Resort. And both of them will be opening this weekend.
The more famous of the two is the Arizona Snowbowl, due to its proximity to Phoenix. Snowbowl is located approximately 150 miles from Phoenix, and travel times on clear days can be right around 2 hrs, making it well within day trip distance. The base of the ski area is around 9000 feet, while the high piont is up above 11,000 feet.
Snowbowl has 3 primary lifts. In simplest terms, a green, blue, and black chair. None of the lifts are of the high-speed detachable sort. The black chair climbs 2000 feet and services some pretty nice terrain that competes with many of the finer resorts in Colorado. If I knew I could have the place to myself, this is a great place to ski. However, on a busy Saturday, its not uncommon to get just 4 runs in (2 in the morning and 2 in the afternoon).
Snowbowl is undertaking plans to expand the park with the addition of one more chair lift, along with a desire to use reclaimed water to provide snowmaking capabilities. Opponents to the plan do not like the use of reclaimed water on the land, and as a result there is a great divide in the Flagstaff area over this issue. Economically, Snowbowl is a major draw for the city of Flagstaff, and there have been years in the past (including 2006), in which the park essentially never opened. This year, it looks like they are off to an excellent start to what I hope is a wonderful ski season, with all lifts opening on December 13. Employers across the valley beware…there may be a sudden rash of unexplained illnesses tomorrow.
Sunrise Park Resort is in the White Mountains approximately 225 miles east of Phoenix. Sunrise is operated by the White Mountain Apache Indians, who have done an excellent job over the past several years updating the ski park. Throughout the park there are 8 chairlifts, servicing 3 peaks. Sunrise peak (the primary peak) has a high-speed quad that offers 1400 feet of vertical. The top portion of Sunrise Peak is a combination of blue and black runs, although by broader standards I would consider it all to be blue/double blue terrain. The majority of Sunrise Peak also has snow making, and as a result Sunrise tends to have a longer ski season than Snowbowl.
In part because Sunrise is further from Phoenix, and because its terrain isn’t quite as challenging, it doesn’t draw quite as many visitors. As well, with more terrain offered, and significantly more chairlifts, they are better suited to handling the crowd. For advanced skiers, the high speed quad easily handles the load, making Surnise a great place to get a lot of skiing in. Sunrise opens on Friday, December 14, and I know I’ll be there between Christmas and New Years.
Access to some nice skiing in the winter, without needing to actually live in the snow, is just another great reason why so many people call Phoenix home.
3 responses so far ↓
Uh, ’scuze me? You forgot Mt. Lemmon. Ski Tucson, baby!
And I didn’t note Elk Ridge near Williams either. I guess I didn’t feel they measured up. Plus neither has its own website, which makes it hard to find out if they are open or not, what the skiing conditions are like, and generally all the stuff a full grown ski area offers.
I’m curious, have you ever skied Mt. Lemmon? I’ve never met someone that’s actually skied there, so I can’t speak to what it’s like. 1 chair lift and 900 ft of vertical seems a tad…diminutive. Also, I thought they suffered from not always opening every year, but worse than Snowbowl. And then for Phoenix area folks, it does take longer to get to Lemmon than it does to Snowbowl.
That said, I have long wanted to ride the Milagrosa trail on my mountain bike, which starts in the ski area. Hopefully, I’ll get that opportunity this spring around St. Patty’s day.
Oh sure, be realistic… I’m just trying to plug Tucson over here.
I haven’t skiied there, and no, they don’t open every year. And the roads sometimes close due to storms and don’t reopen until the snow is already gone. So, you know, it’s not perfect.
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