STORY BY KAREN BOSSICK
PHOTO BY ED NORTHEN
It was an epic season-ending day as Sun Valley Resort bid adieu to the 2021-22 ski season.
Temperatures in the 30s rendered the usual grass skirts a little breezy, but the guys making first tracks through another seven inches of new powder on Exhibition and Shady Side didn’t mind.
The resort cranked up the Mayday lift allowing skiers to cut first tracks through an untouched canvas in Easter Bowl and the other Bowls, as well as the runs on Seattle Ridge. And those who preferred the groomers found them soft and seamless.
It was the perfect finale to a 144-day season that some thought might not last this long as Mother Nature’s supply chain of snow bogged down January through March.
In fact, Sun Valley Resort has sported some of the best skiing of the season these past two weeks. And the latest round of snow boosted the snowpack average for this time of year from 55 percent to 76 percent.
Having withdrawal pangs already? Not to worry. There’s just seven months--or 221 days--to the next season, and Sun Valley is offering its lowest prices on 2022-23 season passes at North America’s No. 1 resort two years in a row right now at https://www.sunvalley.com
Meanwhile, the Blaine County Recreation District continues to groom cross-country ski trails, which were given a new lease on life during the past two weeks as nearly two feet of snow blanketed areas of the Wood River Valley, covering up thin icy spots on the trail.
You’ll have to go all the way to Prairie Creek or Galena Lodge for your fix. But, as of Sunday afternoon, the snow was soft and creamy, making dozens upon dozens of skiers happy.
None were happier than Jenny Busdon who had feared she might not get to ski on her 80th birthday given the fast-melting snow just two weeks earlier.
“Every year I ski on my birthday,” she said. “It’s amazing how good the snow is now.”