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By Local report December 16. 2014 5:20PM Mt. Ashland managers ponder opening this week With one eye on the weather forecast, managers at the Mt. Ashland Ski Area plan to determine Wednesday if the mountain can open on a limited basis later this week for skiers and snowboarders. "We'll have a final decision by Wednesday noon," Jamie Schectman, the ski area's director of sales and marketing, said Tuesday. Schectman said any opening would likely be limited to the beginners' chairlift, Sonnet, and possibly the Comer chairlift, which serves intermediate slopes. The mountain had a base of 9 to 20 inches on Tuesday after receiving an inch of snow the previous night. Schectman said that while the area normally prefers to have at least 24 inches on the ground before opening, the snow that has fallen in recent days was wet and heavy and provided a good cover. "The top of the mountain is in pretty good shape and there's a decent amount of cover by Comer," he said. Managers and area skiers alike are eager for an opening — any opening — after the winter of 2013-14 produced little snow and zero skiing days for Mt. Ashland. In expectation of that opening this year, the area took on several projects over the summer, adding 100 parking spaces and contouring the Sonnet run to make it a more consistent slope for beginners. Several runs were also widened, primarily near the bottoms of the Winter, Tempest and Caliban runs. Schectman said that in addition to the new snow received in recent days, snow was in the forecast for several days this week. That National Weather Service is predicting snow in the vicinity of the mountain for every day this week, with an accumulation of an inch to 3 inches each day. "Hopefully the forecast comes in just the way they're saying," Schectman said. "It will be just what we need." http://www.dailytidings.com/article/20141216/NEWS/141219849 © 2015 Copyright © 1995-2011 Crain Communications Inc. All Rights Reserved. Terms of Use Privacy Statement -->