Juneau skiers will have to wait at least one more week to ski Eaglecrest. The city-owned ski area’s opening date has been tentatively pushed back to Dec. 9.
Eaglecrest had planned to open on Saturday. But at a Juneau Chamber of Commerce luncheon on Thursday, Manager Dave Scanlan said there isn’t enough snow in this week’s forecast.
“Unfortunately, Mother Nature has been playing her way with us this past week,” he said. “We’re pushing off our opening day for one more weekend, hopefully.”
Scanlan said Eaglecrest’s high-efficiency snowmaking machines can be up and running as soon as temperatures drop to 28 degrees. And they have seven more of them this year, bringing the total to 22.
Scanlan says that investment has helped bolster sales. Last year saw record purchases of season passes, and nearly as many have already been sold this year.
“People now can trust and have faith that we’re going to be able to deliver a good product,” Scanlan said.
But Scanlan said that as winter temperatures rise and the cruise season extends, the ski area is also looking at new ways to attract visitors.
Scanlan told luncheon attendees that warming winters are one of the reasons the gondola, which the city bought last year, will be such an important addition to Eaglecrest.
“It’s all about the sustainability of Eaglecrest, both from a climate sustainability and a financial sustainability standpoint,” he said. “As we have warm winter weather, the gondola is going to give us a lot of ability to not be so reliant on all our revenue coming in in the winter season.”
In an interview, he said the snow-making equipment runs best at 25 degrees or below.
In the summer, Scanlan said, the gondola could help people get to hiking and mountain biking trails from a stop partway up the mountain. In winter, they could snowshoe or Nordic ski. And he said longer cruise seasons could even give some tourists a chance to ski.
“I think as we’re having boats arrive earlier in the spring, there’s going to be some great learn-to-ski packages being sold as some tour opportunities,” Scanlan said.
Scanlan said he thinks Eaglecrest could comfortably handle about 500 summer visitors per day. A traffic analysis is still underway. He said the goal is to open the gondola during the 2025-2026 ski season.
